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'A lot of bad news for Trump': Ex-prosecutor shows why new charges are 'remarkably damning’
July 28, 2023 7:00PM ET
Donald Trump (screen grab)
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig on Friday called the superseding indictment against Donald Trump announced Thursday “remarkably damning.”
Honig during an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” said he believes the additional count Trump was charged with in the classified documents case puts the former president in deeper legal jeopardy.
Trump was charged with an additional count of willful retention of National Defense Information.
“The bad news is these new charges are remarkably straightforward and damning,” Honig said. “He's now charged with one more classified document, I think the most important one, the actual Iranian war plan that he showed to other people at his club in Bedminster."
“He is also charged with this new scheme to obstruct justice by deleting his own surveillance video, that's remarkably damning.”
But the news for Trump from Thursday’s superseding indictment wasn’t all bad, Honig said, suggesting the former president’s legal team can now reasonably argue that the three additional charges warrant further delays.
Judge Aileen Cannon set May 20, 2024 as the starting date for Trump’s trial in the classified documents case.
“I know prosecutors are going to fight to keep that in a trial date but Donald Trump now has a golden opportunity to go in front of the judge and say, ‘we've just been hit with three new charges. We need to push this date back,’" Honig said.
“And ultimately that's Donald Trump's best and maybe at this point his only defense.”
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