CNN’s Elie Honig Breaks Down Latest Developments in Trump Classified Docs Investigation

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig took viewers through a deep dive into the latest in the prospective classified documents case against former president Donald Trump on Friday morning, providing analysis of reporting around a recording on which Trump admits to having classified documents in his possession after leaving the White House.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that as president he had the power to declassify any information he wanted, and that he had done so with any documents he left the White House with in January 2021.

Notably, the recording, which is reportedly from a July 2021 meeting at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, has not been obtained or listened to by reporters.

But if the description of its contents are accurate, the timing of Trump’s comments on it would be significant, according to Honig.

“This timing on the Bedminster recording is really important because it’s after Trump loses the power to declassify and it’s also after he knows that Archives says ‘we have concerns,'” he explained.

Honig also disputed a claim by ex-Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore that “this is a situation where failure of process is what led to documents leaving the White House,” because the government had failed to obtain a facility to hold the documents in Trump’s new hometown. He responded to Parlatore’s claims thusly:

This argument about the warehouse is really a “so what?” argument when you get down to the law. Prosecutors have to prove one, Donald Trump had knowledge. Did he know he had these documents? Obviously, he’s acknowledged that many times, including in this recording. Two, did he have some sort of criminal intent? One thing we’ve learned from this new reporting is he was doing something with these documents. He was using them to try to shape the public narrative about his time in office and let’s remember, he has made these repeated false public claims about whether he declassified.

We remember at the town hall, Kaitlan [Collins] asked whether Trump had ever shown declassified documents to anyone and Trump responded, “Not really, I would have the right to. By the way, they were declassified after.” We know that’s not true! Because here he is after he leaves office saying, “These are still classified, I can’t show them to you,” and that goes to criminal intent.

Honig went on to predict that the end of this particular investigation into the former president might be drawing to a close.

“My prosecutorial spidey sense is telling me they are very near the end,” he said. “Let’s remember, Jack Smith is looking at Mar-a-Lago and January 6. As the special counsel, Jack Smith will make the first recommendation, indict or do not indict. Ultimately, that goes over to the attorney general, Merrick Garland. Important to note: The attorney general has to give, and I quote the law here, ‘great weight’ to whatever Jack Smith has to say, so he doesn’t necessarily have to agree with Jack Smith.”

Watch above via CNN.