![]() "I'll tell you what, if you win the primary, I will strongly endorse your campaign." Swaffar, however, ultimately lost her primary this past Tuesday. I've heard great things about you," Trump told her, according to Swaffar. In March, Mar-a-Lago hosted a fundraiser for Florida Republican congressional candidate Darlene Swaffar, who the activist organization Media Matters for America ranks among a long list of QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2022, saying that she has "repeatedly tweeted the QAnon slogan and has posted a video of herself taking an oath supporting QAnon."ĭuring the event, held in Mar-a-Lago's crystal ballroom, Trump aides pulled her aside and surprised her with a private one-on-one meeting with the former president, according to Swaffar. ![]() According to social media posts, among those who have attended events at Mar-a-Lago are several candidates and their supporters who have self-professed ties to the QAnon conspiracy, which law enforcement officials have warned could be radicalizing followers toward violence. In addition, security experts say that passing a government background check involves a review of organizational affiliations and social media activity. And while normally guests would not be required to undergo background checks to attend a gathering at a former president's property, the top secret documents that were allegedly being held on the property raise numerous security concerns. ![]() Others include Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, according to sources and social media posts.įundraisers at Mar-a-Lago have attracted hundreds of guests, many of whom would not have undergone background checks prior to entering a property on which highly sensitive government documents were stored. Gaetz has not been charged with any crime and has denied all wrongdoing. Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation for sex trafficking a minor, multiple sources tell ABC News. Some of the former president's most high-profile allies in Congress have held fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago in recent months, including Florida Rep. In total, federal campaigns and committees have so far spent $1.63 million at Mar-a-Lago through the 2022 midterm election cycle, according to FEC reports reviewed by ABC News. Since Trump returned to Palm Beach after losing the 2020 election, Mar-a-Lago has emerged as the power center for Republican politics, with candidates flocking to the former president's resort to court his support and rent out the club for lavish fundraisers. "The vetting process was definitely not what it should have been," said Grisham, who served nearly the entire four-year term in the Trump White House, working in the press offices of both the president and the first lady, before resigning following the Jan. "There would be times when a member would bring a guest where the background check was shady and we would get these calls, and it was always 'Let them in, let them in.'" Period," said Stephanie Grisham, Trump's former White House press secretary, who had a public falling out with the former president and his family that included publishing a tell-all book last year, but previously spent long hours at the estate as one of his most senior advisers. "At Mar-a-Lago, the priority is the members, not security. ![]() Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser whom Trump had pardoned after Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 of lying to the FBI Tina Peters, a Colorado election clerk who pleaded not guilty to charges of breaching voting systems following the 2020 election and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who was still pushing election conspiracy theories.Īnd though a number of Trump's lawyers have taken to the airwaves in recent days to offer assurances that Mar-a-Lago is highly secure, others with experience at the property say otherwise. The crowd was a Who's Who of Trump loyalists, many of whom had worked to overturn the 2020 results and some of whom were under investigation for their efforts. Attendees were dressed in glitzy gowns and tuxedos, including one guest who wore a jacket emblazoned with the word "Rigged" on the lapels, in support of Trump's claim that the election had been stolen. The film, a widely-debunked account of unproven 2020 election fraud, was the latest movie from Dinesh D'Souza, the conservative author and filmmaker who Trump pardoned before leaving office, after D'Souza pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating federal campaign finance laws. Three months before FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate this month to recover boxes of government documents, hundreds of guests descended on the Palm Beach, Florida, property for a red carpet movie screening.
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