‘Gonna Be Bad Christmas For the Trump Lawyers’: Sen. Whitehouse Reacts to New Filing in Documents Case

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said Donald Trump may face a bigger uphill climb against prosecutors after it was reported on Wednesday night the Department of Justice added another batch of evidence it plans to use against the former president.

Special Counsel Jack Smith alleges Trump willfully took classified documents and obstructed the government’s efforts to recover them. It further says Smith’s team has an audio recording of Trump bragging about having classified material after he was president. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts he faces.

“Prosecutors in the filing used the plural ‘interviews’ to describe recordings of Trump – made with his consent – obtained by the special counsel that have now been turned over to his defense team,” CNN reported. “It is unclear what the additional recordings may be of or how relevant they will be to the Justice Department’s case against the former president…”

Whitehouse joined MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word shortly after the news broke.

“You’re a former U.S. Attorney, former federal prosecutor,” the host noted. “We have Jack Smith handing over, it seems like basically the entire case at this point tonight to Donald Trump and his criminal defense lawyers. All of the grand jury testimony of the witnesses who will testify against Donald Trump. What does that tell you about where this case is tonight?”

Whitehouse responded:

It tells me that the special counsel thinks he’s got a very solid case, and he doesn’t need to be cute. He can be what prosecutors call “open kimono” and turn over all of the evidence early. It tells me that there’s gonna be bad Christmas for the Trump lawyers as they open the different files of evidence and find out how awful the evidence is against their client. It tells me that they want to stay ahead of Judge Cannon and make sure that there can be no complaint about their early disclosure. And it tells me that they want to get Trump’s attention early, by getting his lawyers the evidence that they need to be able to go to their client and say, “Hey, you are in real trouble here.”

Watch above via MSNBC.