Claim that Trump showed classified docs to donors could be what brings him down: former FBI agent
Bombshell revelations claiming former President Donald Trump was showing classified documents to donors at his Mar-a-Lago home could be what brings him down, former FBI agent and Donald Trump foe Peter Strzok said Monday.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, he cited a Sunday Washington Post article that claimed the Justice Department had obtained new evidence that proves obstructions of justice in the classified case.
Before that report, Trump could reasonably claim that he knew nothing about the documents, the report said. He could say his staff had packed them into boxes when he moved from the White House, without Trump's knowledge.
But if he was showing them off to visitors, that argument would be killed.
Former Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who joined Strzok on Wallace's panel, explained that these facts remove Trump's ability to use that excuse. It ties Trump directly to obstruction.
"That's where the reporting from yesterday comes in that's so important," Katyal told Wallace. "It ties Trump directly to the scheme. If it holds up and, of course, we don't know — and Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence and all that, but if that's what [special counsel] Jack Smith is looking at and looks like what he got, that's going to be very devastating."
But it was ultimately Strzok that connected the dots between all of those details and warned that Trump is "quite encircled" on the conspiracy to obstruct the documents probe.
"I think part of the reason he hasn't been charged yet — remember one of Trump's key lawyers, Evan Corcoran, was engaged in this long fight about whether or not he'd be compelled to testify before the grand jury and recently he did go ahead and do that," Strzok said.
"This article very clearly points out that special counsel Smith's folks are asking whether or not he shows this information to donors," he continued. "So, if you're trying to figure out the 'why,' what's your theory of the case, why on Earth did he want to do it, if he's using this to convert it for fundraising and showing it to people who absolutely have no business seeing it and he's hiding it at the same time. That really starts to flesh out the story about, one, why this occurred and, two, how integral Trump was to this entire enterprise."
Wallace read the piece of the Post report saying that Trump would flash his classified documents, "including maps," to political donors. This isn't the first time Trump is accused of playing fast and loose with the nation's secrets or security. During the early years of the Trump presidency, Mar-a-Lago club members were seen having their photos taken with the nuclear football, the briefcase that contains all authorization for a president to launch a nuclear attack while away from the White House.
See the clip of the discussion below or at the link here:
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