Photographs allegedly taken inside the White House of torn-up handwritten notes that were apparently flushed down a toilet by Donald Trump have emerged.
Maggie Haberman, a New York Times White House correspondent, claims that she obtained a picture of documents stuffed in a White House commode and released them to Axios.
The two pictures of handwritten notes are said to have been taken in two different locations, with the other image apparently taken somewhere abroad on a foreign presidential trip.
The handwriting on the paper is barely eligible but two names can be seen — Rogers and Stefanik. This is likely to reference Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama and GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik.
Trump’s office has denied the accusations after previous reports that the former president flouted record-keeping laws and concerns were raised over boxes of files being taken to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
A Trump spokesperson laughed off any suggestion the pictures are genuine, instead insisting that the images are just a book promotion exercise.
“You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan,” Taylor Budowish told Axios.
“There’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it anti-Trump,” he added.
Author Maggie Haberman, whose forthcoming book, Confidence Man, contain the images in question, made the same allegation that Trump was destroying documents earlier this year but did not reveal photos.
Haberman has cited an unnamed White House source for the information and elaborated on her allegation, claiming that White House staffers “periodically” found paper clogging the toilets in the presidential residence.
“That Mr. Trump was discarding documents this way was not widely known within the West Wing, but some aides were aware of the habit, which he engaged in repeatedly,” Haberman told Axios.
Trump himself responded to the assertions that he flushed documents down the toilet back in February when he labeled them a “fake story.”
Image credits: All photos by Maggie Haberman.
Author: Matt Growcoot
Source: Petapixel
