ABC News and Maggie Haberman Report New Bomb: Trump Was Warned He’d Be Committing Crime Not Returning Docs — By Own Lawyer
ABC News dropped new reporting that was soon confirmed by New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman that a Trump lawyer has told investigators she warned ex-President Donald Trump he’d be committing a crime by ignoring a subpoena for classified documents.
As Trump-appointed District Court Judge Aileen Cannon decides whether to delay the trial on 37 counts against ex-President Donald Trump related to Espionage Act violations beyond the election, developments about Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations continue to come out.
On Wednesday, Haberman and Alan Feuer revealed a potential bombshell that goes directly to Trump’s consciousness of guilt: their sources say Trump lawyer Jennifer Little has told Smith’s grand jury she made it very clear to Trump that ignoring the feds’ subpoena would be a crime:
The lawyer, Jennifer Little, this year related the account of her discussion with Mr. Trump to a grand jury overseen by the special counsel Jack Smith. She is one of several witnesses who prosecutors were told had advised Mr. Trump to cooperate.
A few months after Ms. Little testified to the grand jury, Mr. Smith charged Mr. Trump with violating the subpoena for the documents and obstructing the government’s repeated efforts to reclaim nearly three dozen classified documents that he removed from the White House.
As part of her grand jury appearance, Ms. Little told prosecutors that the former president clearly understood her warning, the person familiar with the matter said.
The news was reported earlier, Haberman noted, by ABC News with other details and their own sources:
As described to ABC News, Little told investigators that while meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, she wanted to explain to him that a subpoena from the Justice Department was “different from” what Trump faced over the months before, when officials with the National Archives demanded he return documents taken from the White House.
Little allegedly recalled to investigators that she tried to impress upon Trump how “serious” the matter had become, with sources quoting her as telling investigators that she warned Trump, “You’ve got to comply.”
Habewrman’s reporting has added significance because Trump is known to closely follow everything she writes, and Haberman not only confirmed Trump’s reporting with her own sources, but promoted ABC’s reporting as well.
