Category: Tech

• Walt Nauta, a longtime Trump aide, was seen moving boxes out from a storage room the FBI searched.
• The incidents were caught on security footage, The New York Times reported.
• Nauta was seen moving boxes before and after the DOJ demanded top-secret files be returned in May.

A Trump aide was caught on security camera moving boxes out of a storage room in Mar-a-Lago, per a report from The New York Times. The Times did not view the security footage and Insider was not independently able to verify its contents.

The Times spoke to three people familiar with the matter, who said longtime Trump staffer Walt Nauta was seen on Mar-a-Lago’s security footage moving boxes out of a storage room that was later searched by the FBI. This took place both before and after the Department of Justice issued a subpoena in May ordering Trump to hand over classified documents, per the NYT’s sources.

Intrigue has swirled around what was kept in the storage room, and whether anything was removed from it before the DOJ searched Trump’s property. The Times’ piece dropped hours after The Washington Post reported that Trump himself explicitly directed employees to move boxes of White House documents from the storage room. These boxes were taken from the storage area to the former president’s private residence after Trump advisers received the DOJ’s subpoena in May, per The Post.

The FBI also interviewed Nauta several times before it raided Mar-a-Lago on August 8, according to one of The Times’ sources.

After the raid, the FBI carted off 11,000 documents from Mar-a-Lago, including some that were marked “CLASSIFIED.” Investigators found documents inside a closet in Trump’s office and a storage area in the property’s basement. Some of the documents the FBI found were so sensitive that investigators needed further clearance to view them. Among the documents retrieved was classified information on a foreign country’s nuclear defenses, The Washington Post reported.

The DOJ is currently investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws — including the Espionage Act — by keeping the files at his Florida residence. In an August court filing, the Justice Department said it had evidence “that government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago, and that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”

Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment on The Times’ reporting. Taylor Budowich, Trump’s spokesman at his post-presidential press office, told The Times the Biden administration was “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”

Budowich and Woodward Jr. did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment. 

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Whether you’re looking for a gift for the tech lover in your life or just looking to upgrade your own gadgets, Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale offers great prices on everything from TVs to smart home tech and travel hardware.

That includes discounts on Apple AirPods, iPads, and MacBooks, sales on wireless headphones from Sony and Bose, and deals on computers, and gaming hardware. Amazon tech like Kindle, Echo smart speakers, and Fire TV streaming sticks are also available at some of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen.

We’ve rounded up the best deals on tech and electronics we’ve found so far during Amazon’s October Prime Day. Be sure to check out our guides to the best overall deals and the best TVs too.

The Prime Early Access Sale, Amazon’s second Prime Day of 2022, is here to jumpstart the holiday shopping season, and if you’re looking for the best deals, you’ve come to the right place. 

As with Prime Day earlier this year, the Prime Early Access Sale is a members-only event that promises “hundreds of thousands” of deals. Translation? Truly good deals are difficult to find. 

Throughout the two-day sales extravaganza running October 11 to October 12, we’ll be surfacing the very best discounts as they come, so bookmark this page and check back often. Insider Reviews’ team of expert reporters and editors have vetted each of the deals below — because a great discount doesn’t mean much if the product isn’t any good.

When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.

• Trump said former President George H.W. Bush kept secret government files at a Chinese restaurant.
• He also called for the late president to be investigated, despite Bush having died in 2018.
• Former prosecutor Joyce Vance said Trump’s claims resembled those made by guilty people.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said that Donald Trump’s wild claims about classified documents during his rallies make him look guilty and scared. 

Vance, now a law professor at the University of Alabama, weighed in on Trump’s speech at a GOP campaign rally in Nevada on Saturday. Trump baselessly claimed that the late former President George H.W. Bush kept secret government documents in a “bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant.” 

“George H.W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant where they combined them,” Trump said. “So they’re in a bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant.” 

“By contrast, I had a small number of boxes and storage at Mar-A-Lago — very small, relatively — guarded by the great Secret Service, we love the Secret Service. And yet the FBI, with many people, raided my house,” he added.

Commenting on Trump’s claims, Vance tweeted: “In my experience as a prosecutor, people say stuff like this when they’re guilty & scared.” 

—Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) October 9, 2022

During a rally in Arizona on Sunday, Trump made the same claim, alleging that Bush “took millions and millions of documents to a former bowling alley pieced together with what was then an old and broken Chinese restaurant.” 

“And it had a broken front door and broken windows. Other than that, it was quite secure,” Trump said, questioning why Bush was not being investigated and prosecuted. Bush died in Houston in 2018. 

Trump’s claims about Bush sparked scorn from Bush’s son, Jeb Bush, who tweeted his response to Trump on Saturday. 

 “I am so confused,” Jeb Bush wrote. “My dad enjoyed a good Chinese meal and enjoyed the challenge of 7 10 split. What the heck is up with you?”

—Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 10, 2022

It is unclear how Trump arrived at his claims about the elder Bush. A spokesperson at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

During its search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, the FBI seized classified documents, including some marked “top secret.” Trump is under investigation by the DOJ for whether Trump broke three federal laws — including the Espionage Act — by keeping the files at his Florida residence. 

• A blast on a crucial bridge caused celebrations in Ukraine and calls for revenge among Putin allies.
• The Kerch bridge is an important supply route between Russia and the Ukrainian peninsula.
• Putin allies, blaming Ukraine, have called it a “terrorist attack” and demanded a response.

Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin are calling for a swift response after an explosion on a crucial bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia.

The Kerch bridge collapsed Saturday at around 6 a.m. local time after a truck explosion set off fuel tankers while a train was crossing, Russian officials said.

Putin immediately ordered the source of the explosion to be investigated, but some in Russia quickly blamed Ukraine. Some Ukrainian officials offered subtle hints that they may have been behind the blast, which occurred the morning after the Russian president’s 70th birthday, but Ukraine has not formally taken responsibility.

The bridge provides a road and rail connection between Russia and Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. It serves as a key supply route for transporting essential goods like fuel and equipment to Russian forces, which are already said to be struggling as they try to ward off more Ukrainian counteroffensives. 

The bridge also held personal significance to Putin, who oversaw its opening in 2018 by driving a truck across it in a symbolic show of the connection between Crimea and Russia.

—Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) October 8, 2022

 

The explosion on Saturday has been called a humiliation for Putin due to both the strategic and symbolic significance of the bridge, and has opened him up to additional public criticism over his handling of the war in Ukraine.

Some of his allies have publicly demanded retaliation, certain that Ukraine was behind the blast.

Sergei Markov, a politician and former adviser to Putin, called the explosion of the bridge a “terrorist attack” in a Telegram post and said it showed “the US and its Ukrainian proxy regime will move the red line further and further,” Politico Europe reported.

“No response from Russia? Even further. And again? Even further,” he wrote, urging Moscow to respond.

The explosion was also called a “terrorist attack” by Konstantin Dolgov, a member of Russia’s parliament, according to Politico Europe. He called it “another sinister manifestation of the terrorist nature of the puppet Kyiv regime,” adding: “Terrorists must be treated unequivocally!”

The calls for revenge come as Putin and the Russian military have faced increasing criticism in recent weeks, including from members of his inner circle, according to reports.

Though Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack, the explosion of the bridge was celebrated by Ukrainians. 

• Former Trump aide Sarah Matthews said Mark Meadows’ behavior on January 6 was the most disappointing.
• She told Politico that Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, was often seen as an enabler. 
• Matthews was one of several aides to resign on January 6.

A former White House deputy press secretary said besides former President Donald Trump, the behavior of Mark Meadows — the former chief of staff — was the most disappointing during the Capitol riot.

On Friday’s episode of Politico’s podcast “Playbook Deep Dive,” Sarah Matthews, one of several aides who resigned on January 6, said Meadows was often seen as an enabler. 

“He wouldn’t speak up and say what we all knew and would kind of sometimes just sit back and I heard that from multiple people in general at my tenure at The White House,” she told Politico’s Ryan Lizza. “He was always kind of looking out for his own best interests it felt like.”

Matthews said Meadows’ text messages from that day made it clear he was getting bombarded by people telling him to get the situation under control.

Meadows turned over thousands of texts to the January 6 committee, which ranged from Donald Trump Jr. advising Meadows to tell Trump to “condemn this shit Asap” to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene saying the rioters were antifa “dressed like Trump supporters.”

On September 15, CNN reported Meadows complied with the Justice Department’s subpoena for its January 6 investigation.

A lawyer for Meadows did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

• Elon Musk is feuding on Twitter with China’s top propagandist.
• Hu Xijin, a Chinese commentator, said Musk would be “taught a lesson” over his views on Ukraine.
• Musk fired back at Hu with what appeared to be a meme of a translation of a fake Confucius quote.

Billionaire Elon Musk has been embroiled in a Twitter brawl over the Ukraine war with China’s top propagandist, Hu Xijin. 

Hu, a former editor-in-chief of Chinese state media outlet Global Times who has been described as China’s “troll king” by The Guardian, called Musk out in a Wednesday tweet responding to Musk’s Twitter poll on how to end the Ukraine war.

In the poll, Musk asked his followers to vote on whether his list of conditions — which included re-doing the sham referendums in the four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia and ensuring Ukraine’s neutrality in the region — would work to bring an end to the conflict.

In his scathing response to the poll on Wednesday, Hu wrote: “Elon Musk has released his personality too much, and he believes too much in the US and West’s ‘freedom of speech.’ He will be taught a lesson.” 

Musk fired back at Hu on Thursday with a phrase in Chinese that read: “手整体插在口袋里的人过分自信.” 

The Chinese phrase posted by Musk did not appear to be entirely coherent but translated to: “A man with his whole hands in his pockets is overly confident.”

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 6, 2022

It is unclear what Musk meant by the tweet. However, some Twitter users commented that it might have been a Google-translated version of a meme involving an innuendo-laden fake Confucius quote that states: “Man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.”

Users on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform appeared none the wiser about the meaning of Musk’s post but speculated that Musk meant to say that Hu was idle and powerless.

For his part, Hu responded to Musk on Friday with a tweet that read: “Man with hands in Twitter feels confident.”

—Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 7, 2022

Musk has sparred with several figures over Twitter in the last week, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. 

In response to Musk’s proposed peace plan, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, blasted Musk in a tweet on Tuesday that stated: “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also took a swipe at Musk, posting his own poll that asked if people like a Musk who supports Russia or a Musk who supports Ukraine more. 

Musk also got into a contentious Twitter exchange with the Kyiv Post, a Ukrainian media outlet that called Musk out for his “pride and vanity.”

“Look, @elonmusk, like we said before we are grateful to you for the Starlinks. We naturally disagree with your peace plan and make no secret of it — but we do invite you to give us an interview and explain why your stance is like that. We are keen to know. DM?” the outlet wrote on its Twitter page on Thursday. 

“I’m a big fan of Ukraine, but not of WW3,” Musk fired back the same day.

Hu and Musk did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

• Michael Cohen said SCOTUS would reveal its corruption if it took up Trump’s case.
• Trump asked SCOTUS to intervene in his dispute with the FBI over documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
• Cohen added that if the Supreme Court intervenes, the justices on the bench would “have to go.” 

Michael Cohen, who was once Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer, believes the Supreme Court would reveal its corruption if it gets involved in the former president’s legal tussle with the FBI over top-secret documents found at Mar-a-Lago. 

Cohen commented in a TikTok video on Tuesday about Trump’s request for the Supreme Court to intervene in his dispute with the FBI over the seizure of more than 11,000 records from Mar-a-Lago. The remarks came after the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overturned Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to include around 100 classified documents in the special master’s review, pausing their use in the criminal investigation.

Trump is now attempting to get the Supreme Court to keep these documents under the purview of the special master. 

“Delay, delay, delay, that’s what he’s gonna do,” said Cohen, referring to Trump. “This is exactly what he does in every single case. He will drag it now as far as he possibly could.”

In September, Cohen admitted that he had helped Trump create a “playbook” for dealing with legal troubles, which included delaying lawsuits as a tactic for avoiding prosecution.

Cohen said that Trump’s request to the Supreme Court was his “only move” but also weighed in on what could happen with the court’s decision.

 

“If the Supreme Court ends up listening to this bullshit, the fact that this fucking asshole can have top-secret documents, which is in violation of the Presidential Records Act, as well as the National Archives with their multiple subpoenas, requests, and so on for the return of the documents, we’ll know that the fucking Supreme Court is corrupt,” Cohen said on Tuesday.

He added that if the Supreme Court intervened and took Trump’s side, all the justices on the bench would “have to go.” 

A spokesperson for Trump’s post-presidential office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

The Department of Justice has been looking into whether Trump broke any of three federal laws — including the Espionage Act — by keeping classified documents at his Florida residence.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to felonies, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and bank fraud. He was sentenced in December that year to three years in prison and was disbarred in February 2019 by the New York Supreme Court. 

Since his release, Cohen has become an outspoken Trump critic and has gleefully weighed in on the former president’s many legal troubles. In September, he also announced that he would be selling t-shirts that depicted Trump behind bars to “celebrate the fall of the mango Mussolini.”