Trump Walked ‘Himself Into a World of Hurt’ During Hugh Hewitt Interview on Docs Case, Warns Legal Expert
Benjamin Wittes, the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, reacted this week on the Bulwark Podcast to former President Donald Trump’s interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, who pushed Trump to answer some key questions regarding his legal troubles.
In their lengthy discussion on Wednesday, Trump claimed repeatedly that in the classified documents case in Florida, he had done nothing wrong under the Presidential Records Act, which Wittes flatly rejected that assertion as false.
Hewitt, however, focused more on other charges in the case and did not press Trump on that point, instead asking, “But even if you are successful on the motion to dismiss on the documents, there’s still the obstruction charge. I always think that’s the most dangerous charge going. Did you direct anyone to move the boxes after the subpoena issued?”
“Now let me tell you about the obstruction charges. Same thing as they did with Russia, Russia, Russia. They create a fake case. You see, all this is, is Russia, Russia, Russia all over again. I know many of them, and I’ve won every time,” Trump replied to Hewitt.
Hewitt later pressed Trump again on whether or not he asked anyone to move boxes. Trump became frustrated and said he wouldn’t answer, adding:
You know why? Because I’m allowed to do whatever I want. I come under the Presidential Records Act. I’m not telling you. You know, every time I talk to you, oh, I have a breaking story. You don’t have any story. I come under the Presidential Records Act. I’m allowed to do everything I did.
Host Charlie Sykes played this part of the interview for Wittes on Thursday and asked for his reaction.
“Hugh Hewitt is not my favorite person in the world, but he’s a smart lawyer, actually, and he is picking up on something correct here. The obstruction counts in this indictment are not related to the document handling issue,” Wittes replied, adding:
And even if you completely by Trump’s bullshit about the underlying document retention case, there are still these subpoenas and failure to return material and the machinations to prevent the return of the material that violate the obstruction laws, even if the material weren’t classified.
And so Hugh Hewitt here is picking up on something significant, which is that the biggest danger to Trump, which doesn’t depend on the Presidential Records Act or anything else, is just that he had a subpoena and he went out of his way in a hundred different ways to defy it, including moving the boxes, ordering those boxes moved. And by the way, all of these statements he’s making here are potentially admissible. And Trump is just walking himself into a world of hurt with these admissions.
Listen to the full exchange above and podcast here.
