Former federal prosecutor criticizes DOJ for 'treating Trump with kid gloves' instead of just taking the docs
Former federal prosecutor Barb McQuade, who is part of the "Sisters in Law" podcast, said Tuesday that the government has been treating Donald Trump with "kid gloves" when it comes to the documents took from the White House.
Monday evening, it was revealed that there were over 300 documents discovered that were marked classified and top secret. Surveillance videos also reportedly show people coming in and out of the so-called "secure" room and taking documents.
"I will suggest this though, people always assume these kinds of leaks come from within the government. As a prosecutor, I often found they were actually coming from lawyers for the witnesses," said McQuade about the insider information. "So, if there are witnesses who are sharing this information, people who are employees at Mar-a-Lago or otherwise, they would be people familiar with the investigation because there's really not much interest in the government tipping its own hand."
She also mentioned the letter posted by conservative journalist John Solomon, who Trump appointed to be a "designee" on the documents. "In its initial review of materials within those boxes, NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials," the letter said in the late-night release.
IN OTHER NEWS: Mar-A-Lago docs could have caused 'massive firestorm' and 'gotten people killed' if they leaked
McQuade said the letter shows "how only not only is the government not engaged in overreach here, but if they can be accused of doing anything wrong it's that they've engaged in underreach. Treating him with such kid gloves that they've allowed him to retain these documents for months, and months, and months when they should have just gone in and taken them months ago."
She explained that the chronology indicates that federal authorities asked and they kept asking until Jan. 2022, when the National Archives went to Florida to take 15 boxes. They then found out there were things that were missing.
"It was essentially like, going there in May and saying, 'Come on, come on. All off it. Empty your pockets. Let's see what's left,'" McQuade continued. At that point, only one envelope of documents was handed over.
WATCH: Steve Doocy grills Jared Kushner about why Trump had so many classified docs stashed in Mar-a-Lago
"Now they find out there's 26 more boxes," she continued. "So, finally, it's not until August of this year that they get the search warrant. It really was a last resort. After all kinds of efforts to obtain voluntary compliance, they realized it wasn't coming. These are sensitive documents. Every minute they're out there creates a national security problem for the United States. The risk of exposing sources around the world who are gathering information for our intelligence services. Exposing methods and they need to not only get ahold of these, but do a damage assessment and see the documents before they can do that."
These details are among the reasons that some legal experts think Trump could actually "go down."
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