Timothy Parlatore, a former criminal defense attorney for Trump, recently spoke with Laura Ingraham on the investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified documents by the former president. Parlatore argued that there are fundamental flaws in the case which could lead to it being thrown out entirely.
The Department of Justice appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to bring charges against Trump, who pled “not guilty” in federal court.
The 37 counts brought against him include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and concealing documents or records, and false statements and representations.
If found guilty on all counts, he could face decades in prison – an alarming prospect for a man who is President Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s presidential election.
Trump has since revealed new information regarding a secret document discussed on an audio recording at the center of this federal government indictment earlier this month; CNN reported that prosecutors had obtained an audio recording from last summer which showed Trump acknowledging he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran – evidence which could be used against him if this case goes to trial.
Despite these serious allegations, Parlatore believes there are several issues with the grand jury process as well as breaches of attorney-client privilege which should disqualify Smith from prosecuting this case altogether.
He said that Trump’s attorneys should “attack the conduct” of the entire investigation “and show through death by a thousand cuts why this entire investigation is irreparably tainted by government misconduct.”
It would seem that even if Biden wants to win his re-election bid next year without any interference from his chief rival, he will have trouble doing so given how much time and effort has been put into bringing down Donald Trump over what many consider unfounded allegations.
In a Fox News interview with Bret Baier on Monday, Trump claimed he never showed anyone the classified U.S. military plan referred to in the audio recording to anyone.
“There was no document,” Trump emphasized.
“That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” he continued. “And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles,”.
Per the indictment, at the meeting, Trump said he found Milley’s “plan of attack.” But he denied ordering Milley to create such a plan and said it was a misconception.
“I never ordered that to happen, no,” Trump told the Fox News anchor.
Baier raised a question regarding Trump’s use of the term “secret” to characterize a document, which seemed to conflict with his earlier assertions of having declassified all pertinent materials. Trump clarified that his statement was in relation to his limited authority to declassify documents after his presidency ended and that the confidentiality of the source materials he possessed was the reason for their secrecy.
“What I said, that I couldn’t declassify now, that’s because I wasn’t president,” Trump said. “I’d never made any bones about that. When I’m not president, I can’t declassify.”
But by that point, the media had already reported on the classified information, which is what Trump said he was referring to in the audio recording.
