Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal worries former Donald Trump was trying to make money from classified documents found in his Mar-a-Lago home.
Speaking on MSNBC Monday – just after news broke that special counsel Jack Smith had subpoenaed financial records from the Trump Organization's business deals with seven countries since 2017. According to Katyal, it could mean Smith is following the money from the government documents Trump took.
The New York Times broke the news that Smith had issued the subpoenas as part of his investigation into the classified documents.
"Just about ten minutes ago, on air, I said to you that the stolen documents case against Donald Trump is his biggest threat, and that it gets stronger with every passing day," said Katyal. "I guess it's getting stronger with every passing minute because, in the last ten minutes, it appears to have gotten even stronger."
He explained, "Basically, the background here is the prosecutor's fear, the public's fear, that Donald Trump monetizes everything. He monetized Jan. 6th, of all things. He monetizes his impeachment and the like. So, I think the prosecutor's concern here has been when he took these highly sensitive classified documents, was he trying to monetize those as well?"
It's a similar take to what a former Justice Department official asked about Trump's possession of the documents earlier this month.
Smith doesn't need this information for the Mar-a-Lago case, Katyal told MSNBC's Katie Phang after the news broke Monday. Stealing the documents alone falls under the Espionage Act. There are also questions about obstructions of justice in Trump's prolonged refusal to hand over the documents, and allegations that he attempted to move them or hide them.
"What this says is perhaps there is even more," said Katyal. "There is a whole other set of potential criminal charges.
"Of course, this is just early reporting, but basically, what this reporting is saying is that since 2017, the prosecutors were looking at Trump's conduct while in office, while president and after he left office. So, they're not just looking at the Stormy Daniels kind of time period, which is before Trump took office, or the inflation of real estate assets, which was before Trump took office. They're looking now at presidential and post-presidential conduct."
See the full conversation between Katyal and Phang below or at the link here.
Jack Smith might be investigating if Trump was selling classified documents: ex White House lawyer www.youtube.com
