Watch: Trump lawyer refuses to say whether Trump declassified the doc in audio recording
Former President Donald Trump's attorney Jim Trusty was cornered by CNN's Abby Phillip in an interview on Wednesday night over the new report that Trump was caught on audiotape admitting he couldn't share the contents of a highly classified military document in his possession — and refused to answer her questions.
"Were you aware of the existence of this tape prior to the report?" asked Phillip.
"This is really missing the whole story here," said Trusty. "This is a leak campaign ... I am not going to try a case based on the government leaks. But we need to recognize the significance of the moment, which is DOJ and FBI, or some combination of them, are engaging in a leak campaign. This actually started three days after the raid on Mar-a-Lago with an unprecedented press conference. You've never seen in the history of prosecution an attorney general doing that."
"Jim, I just have to — I have to correct you, the Mar-a-Lago raid was publicized by your client," cut in Phillip. "Former President Trump tweeted out it was happening when it was happening." As Trusty continued to insist Trump had blanket declassification authority as commander-in-chief, Phillip continued to press him: "Did he declassify this document that we're referring to?"
"We're not going to try the case leak by leak," said Trusty. "What I can tell you is the leaks that come out, some of them are abjectly false."
"But this is very significant," Phillip continued. "If you are saying he declassified the documents, you should be able to say whether this document had been declassified."
"I'm not trying my case for CNN," said Trusty.
"So you won't say?" said Phillip.
"Of course not," shot back Trusty.
"And will you say in the court of law that he declassified this document?" Phillip asked.
"Well, if I'm in a court of law, I'll defend my client as I need to," said Trusty. "But let me make this point very clear. If you have the authority to declassify, you're not wedded to any bureaucratic process."
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