New Florida grand jury may target Trump underlings over documents

A federal grand jury has reportedly been empaneled in Florida and will hear more evidence this week in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case in a possible sign that prosecutors plan to charge underlings of former President Donald Trump.

The Florida panel, whose existence was previously unknown, would be the only way for prosecutors to hold Mar-a-Lago workers accountable if they lied to investigators or helped Trump impede the high-stakes probe, NBC News reported Tuesday.

It’s not known whether the seating of the second grand jury in the southern district of Florida could delay an indictment of Trump in Washington, D.C., where the first panel has been hearing evidence for several months.

Some legal pundits believe the second grand jury is aimed at targeting Trump workers at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump stashed scores of secret classified documents and defied government efforts to get them back.

Federal investigators have become suspicious of one Mar-a-Lago worker involved in a supposed effort to drain the pool at the oceanfront club that led to a flood of a room containing video surveillance footage, CNN reported.

The worker and staffers who reportedly moved boxes of classified documents in and out of a locked basement storage room are under scrutiny because they only reluctantly gave answers about the documents and eventually refused to cooperate.

Those underlings would need to be charged in Florida, unlike Trump who could be charged in Washington because he originally took the classified documents from the White House when he left office.

Legal experts, including some of Trump’s own former lawyers, expect the former president to be indicted within days by special counsel Jack Smith, whose team is overseeing both grand juries.

“There’s substantial evidence there,” ex-Attorney General Bill Barr said. “If I had to bet, I’d bet it’s near.”