1.
Trump has probably stored really highly explosive files in his property - but it remains unclear whether the FBI search benefits him or harms him
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State secrets storage: Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida
Photo: MARCO BELLO / REUTERS
"No writer has yet described reality as it really is," wrote Thomas Bernhard, famous for his art of exaggeration, "reality is so bad that it can't be described." But sometimes reality is just up ridiculously creepy way frightening.
This is what my colleague Marc Pitzke says in his text today about the FBI's search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
For days, wild rumors have been circulating about this action, which may have been related to illegally stored state secrets.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland yesterday finally officially confirmed the search, citing "considerable public interest."
He even “personally approved” them and is now asking the competent court to release the wording of the search warrant – but only if Trump also approves it.
He has since consented.
The Washington Post reports that the files allegedly stolen by Trump deal, among other things, with "nuclear weapons";
there is a risk "that they could fall into the wrong hands".
"One hopes that this was just carelessness and no bad intentions," said former US intelligence chief James Clapper about the news.
"This is the beginning of the really heated phase of this affair, which has stirred up the United States like nothing has in a long time," writes my colleague Marc.
Trump also still has aces up his sleeve to politically exploit the files scandal.
One speculation is that Trump deliberately provoked the search because it would make him a martyr among his supporters - and thwart his rivals from running again for the presidency.
Several US media had previously reported that Trump took more than a dozen boxes of government documents, some of them classified, with him to Florida when he reluctantly left the White House in January 2021.
According to the law, such files must actually be handed over to the US National Archives, which stores them securely.
New reports from the American media suggest that some of the files Trump is hoarding actually endanger national security and could be misused for espionage purposes.
Behind the scenes, Marc reports, "a heated debate is said to be raging in Trump's inner circle as to who in his own ranks worked for the FBI." Only a handful of people knew about the safe opened during the search.
Trump now suspects even visitors to his club of being "rats" or "bugs," reports Rolling Stone magazine, citing several insiders.
Can Trump really be trusted to have provoked the FBI action?
"I think he helped escalate this affair in order to exploit it politically," says my colleague Marc.
Trump has known for months which files he should release, and he probably had the search warrant from the start, "so he could have published it himself long ago."
Instead, he presents himself as a victim of the "deep state," "a narrative from which he has benefited in all previous scandals of his tenure."
Read full story here: Was Trump hiding nuclear weapons files in basement?
2.
The scandal surrounding the Warburg Bank catches up with the chancellor
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Olaf Scholz
Photo: HCPlambeck / DER SPIEGEL
Findings by the Cologne prosecutors in connection with the scandal surrounding the Hamburg Warburg Bank, about which little was known until now, could mean new trouble for Olaf Scholz.
It's about the contents of the e-mail inboxes and digital calendars of the Hamburg financial administration in 2016, at a time when today's Chancellor Scholz was Hamburg's mayor - or about noticeable gaps in these data sets.
For the current issue of SPIEGEL, my colleague Melanie Amann and my colleagues Jürgen Dahlkamp, Gunther Latsch and Ansgar Siemens have compiled new details on the chancellor's possible involvement in the Warburg Bank scandal.
At the heart of the affair is a "monstrous suspicion," they write.
»Did the Hanseatic City of Hamburg go easy on the private bank in 2016, despite their criminal stock transactions, because that's what politics wanted?
Did the Hamburg Treasury temporarily waive 47 million euros with the approval or even on the initiative of Olaf Scholz?”
There is no hard evidence against Scholz, but "there are enough clues, there are enough pieces of the puzzle".
Ever since it became known that the police, investigating Hamburg's former member of the Bundestag Johannes Kahrs, had found the key to a safe deposit box containing more than 200,000 euros in cash, interest in the Warburg affair has been renewed.
The public prosecutor is investigating against Kahrs because of his possible involvement in the Warburg case, the origin of the money is unclear.
What has so far remained abstract, what has taken place in the form of credit notes, reimbursements, and tax assessments and has been titled in Latin gibberish ("Cum-Ex"), "suddenly seems dangerously simple and real due to the money in Kahrs' locker," according to the SPIEGEL team.
"Few people understand the intricate mechanics of cum-ex tax tricks, but every kid understands the explosive nature of a hidden stack of cash."
There is no evidence that the Kahrs locker treasure is at all related to the Warburg scandal, let alone the person of Olaf Scholz.
The results of the Cologne investigators, which were sent to the investigative committee of the Hamburg Parliament on June 22 and which SPIEGEL was able to see, are based on a comparison of the e-mail communication of the officials and politicians involved with calendar entries in the official mailboxes.
The investigators see indications “of a targeted deletion on the topics of cum/ex and MM Warburg”.
Who may have made sensitive data about the Warburg affair disappear?
Scholz's spokesman said that "the speculations quoted by the Cologne public prosecutor's office" were not known and therefore could not be commented on.
The colleagues report on various meetings with Warburg bankers, which the otherwise meticulous Scholz did not want to remember for a long time.
At the end of 2016, the bank owners Max Warburg and Christian Olearius, Hanseatic high nobility, were allowed to visit Scholz in the town hall twice within a few weeks.
The public prosecutor's office was already investigating Olearius.
Kahrs is said to have been helpful for the appointments, actually not a close confidante of Scholz.
The Hamburg events are complicated, but the longer the investigators and the investigative committee drill, the more paths open up.
And some may lead to Olaf Scholz.
"The Cum-ex case has become a Scholz case," according to the SPIEGEL team.
“Could the Kahrs case rub off on him too?”
Read the full story here: "This Indicates a Targeted Deletion"
3.
Other ARD stations also found possible compliance problems - and yet in the Schlesinger case judgments are often made too quickly
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RBB director Schlesinger in December 2021: containment of the damage
Photo:
Britta Pedersen / picture alliance / dpa
Do we live in a hunting society that indulges in speculations about the misconduct of politicians and officials with too much relish and often a little too hastily?
The SPIEGEL columnist Thomas Fischer suggests this today in a text with the headline "Come on, calm down, honored hunting party," which I like not only because the author Thomas Bernhard, who was mentioned earlier, wrote a great play called "Jagdgesellschaft."
Fischer does not refer to Donald Trump's files and Olaf Scholz's calendar, but to the alleged misconduct of former RBB director Patricia Schlesinger.
Fischer pleads against prejudice against the resigned broadcaster boss.
In fact, the case plunges ARD into a deep crisis.
Other broadcasters are also now nervously looking for clues to potential scandals, as a team of colleagues reports in the current issue of SPIEGEL.
"Everywhere within the ARD one is currently looking for possible compliance problems and potential scandals in consulting contracts, new buildings, company cars," says the story.
Phoenix, a joint broadcaster of ARD and ZDF, got nervous a long time ago.
According to SPIEGEL information, the co-boss there Michaela Kolster had repeatedly (and legitimately) lent her company car to her husband for private trips – until he got into an accident that he was to blame for and the ZDF insurance company was supposed to pay for the damage.
And what about the RBB itself?
My colleagues Elisa von Hof and Isabell Hülsen and my colleagues Martin U. Müller, Anton Rainer and Sven Röbel describe the great irritation within the station about the "salon evenings" that Patricia Schlesinger organized for "multipliers" in her apartment and settled accounts with the institution.
"Even if the judiciary came to the conclusion that the meetings were official for a director, the costs are not automatically reasonable."
The SPIEGEL columnist Thomas Fischer thinks it makes sense "to briefly talk about the meaning of the terms that are floating around and are sometimes used like established results."
We are talking about »infidelity«, »expense fraud«, »nepotism«.
From »luxury office«, »massage seats«, »private trips«.
Fischer suggests that we wait for the investigation into Schlesinger and take a good look at ourselves before we get outraged – and we should think of the title of an album by the band Uriah Heep: »Look at Yourself!«
Read more here: Slow down, dear hunting party
Read the SPIEGEL story here: Salon evenings at the Schlesinger home
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What else is important today
Greens and Union are on par:
If a new Bundestag were elected next Sunday, the SPD would be the big loser.
According to the ZDF political barometer, the Greens and the Union are at the top with the same percentage.
“Schröder has lost all sense of decency”
Gerhard Schröder wants his office in the Bundestag and other special rights as former chancellor to be restored to court.
The reactions are clear.
Great Britain declares a state of emergency for large parts of the country:
Due to drought, the British are no longer allowed to water their gardens in large parts of the country.
Car washes and paddling pools are also prohibited.
And: The forest fire in the Harz Mountains is under control – at least for the time being.
the news
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
These are the pitfalls of the planned
gas levy: Gas consumers are to pay a levy from October 1 to prevent importers like Uniper from going bankrupt.
Consumer advocates and energy companies warn of chaos - but the ministry is sticking to the schedule.
Reichsbürger worked as a court expert - and collected well over 100,000 euros:
According to SPIEGEL information, a leading ideologist of the Reichsbürger movement worked for years as a psychiatric expert - for courts of the hated »FRG system«.
The World Cup in Absurdistan:
The frenetic pace of the opening match of the Qatar World Cup fits the picture of this tournament.
Leaving aside the human rights issue, one thing is already certain: it will be a grotesque World Cup.
What is less important today: football hero in the toy store
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Lewandowski should be the heart of the new FC Barcelona – but can he?
Photo:
Alex Caparros/Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski, 33, creates a special kind of excitement with his club FC Barcelona.
Can he play against Rayo Vallecano with his club at the start of the championship tomorrow?
Today the Spanish league boss made the heavily indebted Barça tremble as to whether he would give them
permission to play.
Nevertheless, Lewandowski was enthusiastic about his new team: "I feel like a little kid walking into a huge toy store."
Typo of the day
, now corrected: Speaking of transfigured: The forest also played a role in National Socialism.
Cartoon of the Day:
FBI with Trump
And tonight?
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The heart of the games: Munich's Olympic Stadium from 1972 is still in use today
Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa
Could you watch the reports and broadcasts from the European Championships in Munich on TV on Erste.
50 years after the Olympic Games, a mini-Olympic format is taking place in Bavaria's capital.
My colleague Jan Göbel has summarized which sports and stars are involved - a total of 4700 athletes will compete against each other in 177 medal decisions in Munich until August 21st.
"The merger is intended to draw more attention to the individual sports," writes Jan.
A lovely evening.
Yours sincerely,
Wolfgang Hoebel
Here you can order the »Situation in the Evening« by e-mail.
