An already troubling security incident at one of President Donald Trump’s properties has taken a more serious turn following new revelations presented by prosecutors. Investigators say the man arrested at Trump’s California golf club possessed extensive information connected to the president’s security operation, including material involving first lady Melania Trump. Jeanine John Taele, 38, allegedly possessed copies of Melania Trump’s schedule along with information about Secret Service personnel assigned to protect the president, prosecutors revealed during a Los Angeles County court hearing Wednesday. Authorities said Taele had seven notebooks containing 208 pages of writings, drawings, and sketches connected to Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes.
The notebooks allegedly included Secret Service schedules, information about individual security personnel, and detailed lists concerning how to survive “off the grid,” according to reports. Los Angeles County Judge John Lonergan Jr. described the allegations as “alarming.” “This case itself is alarming in this day and age with the violence that is creeping into our everyday lives, especially with our partisanship in the political environment” ahead of the midterms, Lonergan said, according to The Associated Press. The new details emerged weeks after plainclothes federal agents allegedly encountered Taele at the golf club on Aug. 2.
Authorities said Taele was walking around the property while taking photographs and videos and appeared to be observing security-planning activities ahead of an expected Trump visit. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies subsequently detained him. Deputies allegedly discovered a 16-round magazine loaded with hollow-point ammunition inside Taele’s pants pocket. Investigators then searched his vehicle and allegedly discovered a loaded handgun with a round in the chamber along with another magazine containing hollow-point ammunition.
