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"CNN This Morning" co-host Phil Mattingly pulled a prominent Republican Party campaign consultant up short on Friday morning after he tried to make a discussion about Donald Trump's 7-count indictment by a Florida grand jury on Thursday night about President Joe Biden's son Hunter.

Appearing with fellow GOP adviser David Urban, Jennings immediately claimed the Trump federal indictment -- that reportedly includes conspiracy, obstruction and Espionage Act violations -- is bad news for the younger Biden before bringing up former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"If I were Hunter Biden I would be very nervous," Jennings laughed. "The Republican answer to these overnight has been how is it that Donald Trump's the only person that gets -- first of all you have Hunter Biden running around doing stuff, you got Joe Biden documents in the garage, Hillary Clinton bleaching servers. You know, the one guy who is under federal investigation -- I was postulating outside. What if they did indict him today? Would take that off the table?"

"To be clear, all of those things either have been had been investigated or still part are being investigated," Mattingly interjected.

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"That what I'm saying, it's happening right now," Jennings soldiered on. "But the Republican mindset is if you're a Republican or if you're Donald Trump you get held to one standard then if you are the other people. That is the mindset."

MSNBC's Claire McCaskill isn't buying the excuse that Donald Trump kept classified documents as keepsakes from his presidency and instead suggested he was planning on selling them.

The former president has been indicted on charges related to the Espionage Act, and both McCaskill and "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough hinted darkly that Trump was involved in trading top-secret national security information for personal gain.

As former President Donald Trump prepares for criminal proceedings against him on seven federal charges stemming from the classified documents investigation, Republicans have howled with outrage, echoing the former president's claims he is being persecuted.

However, despite a few Senate Republicans publicly attacking the indictment, GOP Senate leadership, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have been conspicuously quiet. Speaking to CNN on Friday, congressional reporter Lauren Fox explained why.

Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY), who also served as an attorney in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, said that a new bombshell recording of Trump knocks down the former president's defense strategy in the Mar-a-Lago documents scandal.

Appearing on CNN shortly after the network revealed the recording, Goldman marveled about Trump bragging to guests at Mar-a-Lago that he had "secret" military information that he had not declassified.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ripped "sleazy" Republicans for defending Donald Trump from prosecution before knowing the details of the crimes he allegedly committed.

The ex-president confirmed he's been indicted on federal charges related to his mishandling of classified documents, and even his chief GOP presidential rival Ron DeSantis attacked the Department of Justice, which the "Morning Joe" host found "incomprehensible."

CNN on Friday morning obtained a bombshell transcript of a recording in which former President Donald Trump boasts of retaining "secret" military information that he never declassified while he was president.

Appearing on CNN shortly after this news broke, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman revealed that the former president's team was essentially blindsided by this recording's existence.

Donald Trump has been indicted on multiple counts in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, and legal analyst Chuck Rosenberg said the former president should be deeply worried that he'll be convicted.

The twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president is facing a charge under the Espionage Act, as well as charges of obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements, and Rosenberg told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he would be extremely nervous to be in that predicament.

Twelve hours after it was announced that Donald Trump has been indicted by a Florida grand jury on seven charges including obstruction of justice, conspiracy and Espionage Act violations, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough stated the former president has no one else to blame but himself as he faces years in prison if convicted.

After sharing a clip of the former president talking with Sean Hannity on Fox News and admitting that he took sensitive documents to Mar-a-Lago, as the host tried to get him to back off his comments, Scarborough marveled at how the former president keeps admitting to criminal activities.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Way Too Early" with host Jonathan Lemire, a visibly pleased Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg praised special counsel Jack Smith for moving the 7-count federal indictment of Donald Trump to Florida instead of Washington D.C., calling it a "gangster move."

Speaking with the host, the prosecutor claimed no one saw the indictments coming out of a Florida grand jury and praised the DOJ for keeping it under wraps until the last minute.

As Aronberg explained, by filing the indictments in Florida, Smith avoided having to deal with Trump's lawyers delaying the case by arguing for a change of venue by saying they couldn't get a fair trial in the nation's capital where the former president is highly unpopular.

"You know, Washington, D.C. they voted 92% for Joe Biden to 5% for Donald Trump in 2020," he told the host. "In Palm Beach County they voted 43% for Donald Trump and Miami-Dade County they voted 46% for Donald Trump, so you can see why the jury pool is better for prosecutors in D.C."

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"Prosecutors have to bring charges against defendants in the jurisdiction where the crime took place," he continued. "It looks like the obstruction clearly took place at Mar-a-Lago in the Southern District of Florida as well as the espionage. And filing in South Florida eliminates Trump's inevitable venue challenges in court -- that could have undone the case, it would have delayed the case."

'It's because Jack Smith wanted the public to buy into this," he elaborated. "And I'm sure he bristles at accusations this is a political witch hunt and to show it is not political he wanted to go into a red state, Donald Trump's home state and get an indictment. It's a bit of a gangster move and will be harder to get a conviction, but not impossible."

Appearing on MSNBC just hours after it was reported that Donald Trump is on the receiving end of seven federal indictments related to special counsel Jack Smith's investigations, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade explained that the espionage charge that is reportedly included will cripple a key Trump lawyer defense strategy.

Speaking with MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire on "Way Too Early," McQuade stated that, based on what she has heard about the still-sealed indictments, the inclusion of a charge tied to the Espionage Act takes Trump claim that the documents in question were declassified by him off the table.

"We know his explanations and justifications for having classified documents have changed quite a bit including the idea he just declassified them just by thinking about them," Lemire prompted. "It also seems his defense is trotting out a strategy of prosecutorial misconduct noting this is a charge brought by the Department of Justice that was underneath the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who is Donald Trump's top rival for the White House next year. Walk us through the assessment of potential defenses, and do you think it could work?"