A shocking new ABC News report that Donald Trump shared secrets about U.S. submarines with a Mar-a-Lago member who then passed the information on to others would be “very damaging” to his criminal defense, said CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen.
Eisen appeared Thursday on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
‘If…anyone else with top-secret security clearances were to share this kind of highly classified information, we know what would happen to you guys,” Blitzer said to his panel of experts.
He then asked Eisen, “It’s unclear if the information Trump shared was actually accurate. From a legal standpoint, is that significant?”
“Wolf, if it was based in the documents that the former president held at Mar-a-Lago, whether accurate or not, it still goes to his culpability,” Eisen said, continuing:
The reason we have these rules — and he’s not charged with disseminating the information, a different crime — he’s charged with unlawfully possessing it. But the reason we have these rules is precisely because of the risk that it will get into the wrong hands.It also sheds light on his intent. In any criminal case, you have to prove state of mind, and so it’s relevant on that ground. But we do have to caution, of course, it’s a media report now. It does not appear to be in the case, certainly
is not in the existing charges. We’ll see if it enters the case, but very damaging, even if it turns out not to have been strictly accurate.
Trump was indicted over the summer on 40 counts including violating the Espionage Act for allegedly keeping boxes of sensitive documents stacked inside his Palm Beach Club, Mar-a-Lago. Two other men, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira have also been charged. All have pleaded not guilty.
ABC News reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith is looking at the new allegations about the classified documents case.
Watch the clip above via CNN.