Former Donald Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore made clear in an interview with CNN's Abby Phillip on Tuesday that everything he said in the interview with Fox News' Bret Baier is fair game for prosecutors to use in the classified documents case.
That includes his new claim that he only hid the boxes from the Justice Department because he didn't have time to remove his personal items and clothing from the mix — which is totally at odds with his earlier false claims to DOJ he had in fact turned everything over.
"Tim, as Chris Christie said, some of his lawyers might be trying to jump out of a window after this interview," said Phillip. "I don't know, as a former attorney, you're one of them. I wonder, given what you just heard him say, admitting he held on to the boxes, in spite of a grand jury subpoena. Was he admitting, basically, obstruction there?"
"It's difficult to know," said Parlatore. "This is one of the reasons why we always advise our clients, don't talk about the case. You have the right to remain silent, use it. Let your attorneys talk about it. I look at the answer that he gave there, he says, yeah, I did want to give it back to — yet, was he actually possibly mixing up the question and talking about the first set of boxes before the subpoena?"
The problem for Trump, continued Parlatore, is that "putting that statement out there, without question, yes, the prosecutors can absolutely use that."
"Even if he meant that he was talking about the narrow request, as a — as opposed to the subpoena request, can be very difficult at trial," added Parlatore. Are you going to overcome that? Are you gonna cross-examine Bret Baier, what do you think he meant? Or even a put Donald Trump on the stand and say, would you like to clarify it? It's a difficult situation."
Watch below or click here.
