On Wednesday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat," former federal prosecutor and white-collar criminal defense attorney Danya Perry broke down the legal predicament of former President Donald Trump as the FBI investigates his improper hoarding of highly classified information at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Specifically, Perry argued that Trump's situation is similar to that of people caught in major drug busts — and his potential lines of defense are just as limited.
"Even if Trump had attempted to declassify — and I say attempt because we don't know if he successfully did it — the fact that he had the records in his possession since the beginning evidence of his guilt?" asked anchor Katie Phang.
"In some ways this is like a narcotics case," said Perry. "This is if you have it in your possession, yes, you can argue I didn't realize that white powdery substance was cocaine. But that's a difficult argument. I've never seen that argument succeed."
Furthermore, noted Perry, the Justice Department already has some evidence Trump did, in fact, know exactly what he was doing.
"We saw some tells in the filing," said Perry. "Some of the documents as you pointed out earlier were in his office, in his desk, and they were intermingled with his personal documents and his passports. So that's another tell that he had to know. And if he saw them, if he put eyes on them and they're in his residence, I do agree that's an open-and shut case.
Watch below:
Danya Perry compares Trump documents investigation to narcotics casewww.youtube.com
