Want to bring you a CNN exclusive now on one of the simmering legal problems
for Donald Trump today.
Two longtime Trump Organization executives, Matthew Calamari, senior
and his son Matthew Calamari Jr, are due before the grand jury investigating
possible mishandling of classified documents brought to Mar a Lago.
The special counsel, Jack Smith, is probing the organization's handling
of surveillance footage from the former president's Florida resort.
And sources telling CNN, quote, The handling of the footage
and how employees within the Trump Organization responded
to the Justice Department's demand for it have prompted a new round
of grand jury subpoenas to top Trump employees in the last few weeks.
CNN's Paula Reed is here.
She's part of the team behind this reporting
also with us, our senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez.
Carrie Cordero still at the table.
MS.. Potentially mishandling the footage.
What do we mean by that?
Editing the footage being slow to provide the footage?
Something else we don't know exactly, but what we know is originally
they were interested in the footage because they wanted to know what exactly
happened to these classified materials once they were sent down to Florida.
Among the things they've
already seen on this footage, for example, is a junior Trump aide, Walt Naughton,
moving some boxes out of a closet along with another employee.
Walter, when asked about what exactly happened there.
Remember, they're not just investigating possible
mishandling of classified documents.
They're also looking into whether anyone has tried to obstruct this probe.
And now they've sent off this new round of subpoenas to ask people
what exactly happened
after they subpoenaed this footage and did anyone try to withhold it
or tamper with this critical evidence in an interview with Sean Hannity.
Trump himself brought up the video footage and he said, I'm the good guy here.
They raided Mar a Lago, viciously raided Mar a Lago.
I have tape and I gave them tapes.
You know, I gave them tapes of storage areas.
If I gave it to them, I could have held that back.
I wasn't holding anything back that I care, but I gave them tape
I suspect here
that what he says and what they bring,
they bring the investigators think or again, kind of different.
Right. I mean, the tapes were subpoenaed.
So he wasn't being generous.
He actually was, you know, complying with with an order from the court.
And as Paula points out, you know, certainly the obstruction part of this
investigation is why the former
president is in the legal jeopardy that he is in.
Right.
The fact is that they received subpoenas.
They were ordered to return all of these documents.
They did not.
And even after receiving them, there were there were documents being moved
from the the room that they had promised to secure.
They had promised to put an extra lock on it.
And so that's the reason why what Jack Smith is doing and,
you know, I think Paula hints at it there.
The prosecutors seem to believe that they know something,
and that's the reason why they're bringing these people in to ask these questions.
Because they clearly seem
to have information that they believe these these men could could shed light on.
So help us as a former prosecutor and you're in the room
and you're trying to build your case and you have testimony from individuals,
including the Trump aide who acknowledged the grand jury
had with him on the videotape.
But now you have Matthew Callamard, senior,
who has handled security issues for Donald Trump for decades.
Long time.
His son is the director of security now.
So you're bringing them in and you have the footage.
Just help me put together the pieces of what you're looking for
to build the case and why the video footage matters.
Well, so just a level set on this investigation.
Generally, though, the Evans actually so correct in this in that
this is a former president we're talking about.
Had it been determined, the Justice Department told him,
we think you have classified documents, he provided them all
that would have been the end of this.
The end and instead this obstruction part and the growing piece of it
is why there is so much legal jeopardy and why it continues to expand
to a broader array of people who potentially had either involvement
and or knowledge of the obstruction of this investigation.
So the video evidence is critical because it shows what would happen.
Video evidence is one of the best pieces of types of evidence
in addition to text messages or emails.
But sort of that documentary evidence because it shows what it shows.
It's not reliant on a particular person's reputation
in terms of their own testimony.
So then they bring these people and they're going to get their potentially
corroboration of what's on the videos.
And they need to get the story behind of how it is
that that information was delayed and being provided.
So to learn from our reporting.
One of the reasons they're particularly interested in Matthew Calamari Senior.
This is a guy who's worked for Trump for decades.
He's the chief operating officer of the organization.
It was he according to our reporting,
he received a text message from Walt not to ask me if he had time to talk.
And investigators were particularly interested
in the conversations that that happened offline.
And whether there was any discussion of this video footage and maybe, you know,
what did you want to talk about? Exactly.
He has to do something by somebody.
So this is a dramatic escalation of the special counsel's investigation
of this piece of it.
The classified documents, which is one, two, is the events to try to disrupt,
ignore,
stay in power after the election, which goes from election night essentially
through Inauguration Day, really, but January 6th being a seminal event
in that in that Mike Pence, because the special counsel won in court.
Mike Pence had to testify the grand jury, and he had testify
at times about direct conversations with the president.
In our exclusive
reporting yesterday, special counsel Jack Smith and Pence interacted while Pence
was at the courthouse and one source described the interaction as respectful.
Smith's appearance is the first known time the special counsel has attended
a grand jury proceeding in the investigation out of respect
because it's the former vice president
and it is such an extraordinarily legal and constitutional moment.
Or here's a guy who might be a very important witness someday.
I'm the chief prosecutor. I want eyeball this.
I think it's the latter.
I mean, the former vice president is that it is one of the key witnesses,
one of the most important witnesses, and certainly one of the witnesses.
They've waited the longest to try to bring in to this grand jury.
But, you know, you think we have a list there
of of all of the members who have gone in recently.
Right.
You have people
some of have had to come back because three,
because Jack Smith has won in court, say, no, they need to tell more.
Right.
Because the former president was always was arguing for executive privilege.
But the importance here is that, you know
what, one picture is not on that on that on that screen right now.
And that's Mark Meadows, right.
He is probably looms largest of the witnesses
that we haven't seen come in yet, or at least we haven't witnessed him come in.
And that's important because we, you know,
certainly believe that this investigation is coming near the end.
I mean, this seems to be a lot of work still going.
But Mark Meadows could very well be one of the final witnesses
before they make a decision on whether to bring charges.
And a man who had eyes on just about everything,
on every step of both investigating both investigations.