On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," legal analyst Elliot Williams broke down the controversial argument Trump made at his Mesa, Arizona rally in defense of hoarding classified documents at his Florida country club — an argument his legal team has so far declined to make when under oath in court.
"I had a small number of boxes in storage at Mar-a-Lago guarded by Secret Service and my people and everybody," said Trump in the clip played on CNN. "I mean, it's safe. There is no crime, there is no crime. It's not a crime. And they should give me immediately back everything that they've taken from me because it's mine, it's mine."
"So when you listen to that, does it make the attempt to blame that government agency look even more absurd?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.
"It does," said Williams. "That is what prosecutors would call a confession for a crime, and the mere fact that you think it's not a crime doesn't change that fact. Look, Wolf, I can burn your house down and if I burn your house down and say, you know what, I didn't commit arson, I was just playing with fire at Wolf's house, it's still an act of arson. Whatever, we don't even need to explain that point."
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Making matters worse for Trump's argument, continued Williams, is that he had plenty of direct evidence to believe that it was, in fact, a crime.
"Look, this question of who packed what also adds — is compounded by the fact that it's multiple communications from the authorities with the folks at Mar-a-Lago," said Williams. "Every time they received an email at Mar-a-Lago, they were put on notice that what they were doing was illegal. It all speaks to the intent not just of the president, but other people around him. And it's going to come up in a criminal charge at some point for somebody."
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Elliot Williams compares Trump's legal defense to an arsonist "playing with fire"www.youtube.com
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