CNN Analyst Dismissed Trump’s Cluttered Defense in Classified Documents Case: ‘They’re Throwing Everything at the Wall’
CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid was dismissive of former President Donald Trump’s cluttered defense strategy in the federal classified documents case brought against during a CNN News Central segment on Wednesday.
Trump insisted that all of his predecessors also took classified documents with them when they left office during a townhall event with Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night, telling the Fox News host that “everybody took them out, it only became a big subject when I took things out.”
“The difference is I had what’s called the Presidential Records Act. I was allowed to do what I did. Absolutely allowed. That’s why they passed the act in 1978,” declared Trump. “They passed the Presidential Records Act. I didn’t have to hand them over. But second of all, I would have done that, we were talking, and then all of a sudden they raided Mar-a-Lago.”
“Let’s fact check what we just heard,” began Reid after listening to the clip of Trump. “First of all, the Presidential Records Act does not allow you to take classified documents home and then refuse to return them when you’re asked. We know the former president, of course, caught on tape acknowledging that he didn’t have the power to declassify them and should not have those secrets.”
“Then he talks about a, quote, ‘raid on Mar-A-Lago.’ That was not a raid, that was a search warrant that was executed, again, after multiple attempts to get those classified documents back where they belong,” she added before delving into a “laundry list” of challenges Trump’s lawyers plan on filing:
Moving forward in the Mar-a-Lago document prosecution, Trump’s lawyers revealing yesterday that they intend to file a slew of challenges. It’s a straight laundry list, Sara. I’m going to read off the different challenges that they want to file. They want to challenge, quote, “the appointment of Jack Smith, presidential immunity, the Presidential Records Act, selective and vindictive prosecution, as well as due process violations, prosecutorial misconduct, impermissible pre-indictment delay and the illegal raid at Mar-A-Lago” — which I just said was a duly executed search warrant — “and of course, “the improper violations of President Trump’s attorney-client privilege.” So they’re basically throwing everything at the wall to see if anything will stick. While the former president and his attorneys absolutely have the right to file pretrial motions, we know this is also part of a larger strategy to try to delay both of the special counsel’s criminal prosecutions of Trump until after the 2024 election. Because if he is reelected, he can make Jack Smith’s appointment and his cases pretty much go away. So this is all part of a delay strategy.
Watch above via CNN.
