Legal Analysts Say Jack Smith Signaled More Serious ‘Leaking’ Charges For Trump in New Jersey
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Former president Donald Trump pleaded “not guilty” to the 37 federal counts against him yesterday, but legal experts claim that the text of the indictment issued by special counsel Jack Smith could leave Trump open to additional charges.
While it’s only speculation, Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann write in The Atlantic that none of the 37 counts outlined in the 49-page indictment include a charge of dissemination of classified information, a “steeper” charge. The reason for this, they suspect, is because these charges were made in Florida — but the possible dissemination, or communication of information or materials may have happened in New Jersey:
According to the Justice Department and a taped recording of the former president, Trump took classified records from Mar-a-Lago to Bedminster, where he showed off the contents of such records to others. The indictment alleges that Trump showed a map to a political ally and also showed a writer and a publisher a secret military plan to attack Iran. These two episodes were arguably the most egregious allegations of criminal wrongdoing mentioned in the indictment; they allege not just the improper retention of our nation’s most highly classified information, but the intentional communication of such information.
The recording they mention is the one obtained by CNN in which Trump is heard “waving around documents” and saying, on tape, “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this” and “This was done by the military and given to me.” Goodman and Weissmann point out that while illegal retention of classified information is a serious charge, the “deliberate dissemination” is much more serious. It would mean that Trump allegedly, deliberately leaked classified information while at his Bedminster club in New Jersey, a separate charge.
The article cites a few reasons for this, one of them being the likelihood of prosecution in the chosen venue of Florida. With Trump-appointed Aileen Cannon as the judge on this case, there are concerns that she may not be objective when it comes to the former president. There is also the chance that Cannon could “pocket-veto” the charges by scheduling the trial for a date after the 2024 election, giving Smith the chance to bring up new charges in New Jersey ahead of that date.
The lack of dissemination charges in the indictment is curious if Trump did (allegedly) talk about the classified information he received to others. According to Smith’s carefully-worded indictment, Trump allegedly transported boxes of documents from Florida to New Jersey. But that possible act of dissemination is something that happened while Trump was in New Jersey, leaving him open for another, more serious charge. Maybe.
