Former President Donald Trump appears to have a weak defense if he's prosecuted for taking classified documents to Mar-A-Lago, but he may be able to hold the court hostage by threatening to reveal some of that top-secret information.
The FBI found boxes of highly sensitive materials in Trump's office and other areas of his private resort, and his attorneys have asked for them back, or at least an inventory of what was taken -- which NBC News reporter Marc Caputo told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" signaled his possible strategy.
"I'm being led to believe it's not detailed, it's not the stuff we'll want to see," Caputo said. "We'll want to see, like, okay, which foreign leaders potentially were in these classified documents he allegedly had or whatever. However, it's going to be more detailed. How much? We have no clue. The judge yesterday said she would start to unseal it after the court hearing, today is technically after the court hearing -- we'll see."
"I think a broader issue here is what you're also going to see in cases, again, if there's a prosecution, of something called graymail, which is where a defendant in a case where there's classified information tries to push the release of that classified information, knowing the government doesn't want it released," Caputo continued, "and that can sort of psych the government out of wanting to release that highly classified or sensitive information. Now there is a Classified Information Procedures Act, which allows for the courts to kind of go through and handle these issues and release redacted information. But the fact of the matter is we've never had a former president and future presidential candidate, likely future presidential candidate, on trial, especially over stuff like this regarding issues related to his presidency or his past presidency, so, we're, as I said, we're in uncharted waters."
"We should just expect a lot more of this," he added. "Whether it's in motions or in appeals or, again, sending things all the way up to the Supreme Court if it starts to really steamroll in that direction."
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