Trump Doesn't Actually Want FBI Footage Released: Ex-Official

Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the former president doesn't actually want the surveillance footage of the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago residence to be released even though his allies have hinted that Trump is prepared to publicize the tapes.

Grisham said that if there was incriminating evidence that FBI agents acted improperly during the search, Trump would have already released the footage captured by his security cameras.

"He doesn't listen to his lawyers," she told CNN's Erin Burnett. "He doesn't listen to who's around him. If he wanted it released, it would be released right now."

"I think what we would see is hardworking FBI agents doing their jobs," Grisham said on Thursday. "I think that if there was video of them ransacking rooms, or stealing items like Donald Trump has purported, that would be out there."

In the wake of the search, Trump has suggested that federal investigators could have been "planting" evidence during the August 8 raid. He also said that his team was asked to turn off the Mar-a-Lago surveillance cameras but that they refused to do so.

On Monday, his second eldest son, Eric Trump, said that the footage would "absolutely" be released "at the right time." He had previously said the video showed agents raiding areas they were not authorized to.

According to Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, the Trump family watched "the whole thing" take place in Palm Beach despite being in New York at the time of the raid.

While some close to the former president have encouraged him to release the footage, others have cautioned that it could backfire on him and reveal to the public just how many records federal agents seized from his home.

Grisham's belief that there isn't "anything" on the surveillance tapes was echoed by another former White House official who said Trump would be unlikely to release the footage if it didn't work to his favor.

"If anything problematic happened, like it showed somebody planting evidence or something like that, then it would be really explosive," Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House attorney, told CNN. "That's the main reason I doubt they will make it public, because I'm sure it doesn't show them planting evidence and it takes that crazy claim off the table."

"If someone can persuade [Trump] this is somehow good for him and bad for his enemies, he'll do it," Cobb said. "He doesn't have the lawyers to help him sort through these things strategically and is really thinking through them on his own."