By If one of Donald Trump’s former lawyers is correct, things are about to get hairy for the former president. A White House lawyer when the 45th president occupied office, Ty Cobb thinks the “feds are coming fast” for Donald Trump, and he is speculating that following an investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, Trump will see a prison cell.
Newsweek reports, “Cobb, a former U.S. assistant attorney and member of the Trump legal team between July 2017 and May 2018, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday that a plethora of evidence exists to convict the former president. Trump, who is being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith, has maintained his innocence in this and all other current investigations into alleged criminal wrongdoing.
Investigations include Smith looking into Trump’s potential wrongdoing regarding the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021; whether he attempted to overturn the 2020 president election results in Georgia; as well as the indictment already handed down against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office for an alleged $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels via Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen during the 2016 campaign; and New York Attorney General Letitia James’ tax fraud suit filed in September against Trump and three of his children: Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
CNN reported Thursday that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) informed Trump that 16 records would be handed over to Smith, purportedly showing that the former president and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president—which Cobb said would not be “much of a legal hurdle” for Smith should Trump challenge it in court.
“I would not necessarily expand the case to try to prove the Espionage Act piece of it because there is so much evidence of guilty knowledge on the espionage piece that all they really have to do is show that Trump moved these documents at various times when DOJ was either demanding them or actually present, that he filed falsely with the Justice Department, had his lawyers file falsely with the Justice Department, an affidavit to the effect that none existed—which was shattered by the documents that they then discovered after the search—and the many other misrepresentations that he and others have made on his behalf with regard to his possession of classified documents,” Cobb said.
Cobb also contends that the letter sent to Trump by the National Archives last week undercuts Trump’s argument that he had automatically declassified the documents he took with him after leaving The White House and did not think he was doing anything wrong.
“According to the letter, Trump tried to block the special counsel from accessing the 16 records by asserting a claim of ‘constitutionally based privilege.’ But in her letter, Wall rejects that claim, stating that the special counsel’s office has represented that it ‘is prepared to demonstrate with specificity to a court, why it is likely that the 16 records contain evidence that would be important to the grand jury’s investigation.’
The special counsel also told the Archives that the evidence is ‘not practically available from another source.’
The letter goes on to state that the records will be handed over on May 24, 2023 unless prohibited by an intervening court order.’
A source close to Trump’s legal team told CNN that the former president has received several letters like this from the Archives over the course of the investigation.”
Meanwhile, as things heat up with the case, Trump has lost another of his lawyers. The Independent noted that “Tim Parlatore stood down on Wednesday – but insisted that his decision was ‘personal’ and was not to do with Mr Trump or the strength of the case.
‘It’s been an incredible honor to serve and work through interesting legal issues. My departure was a personal choice and does not reflect upon the case, as I believe strongly the (Justice Department) team is engaging in misconduct to pursue an investigation of conduct that is not criminal,’ Mr. Palatore told CNN in a statement.”
Trump’s legal problems following his actions with the classified documents has revealed, however, that a potentially two-tiered system of justice exists in the United States. One for Democratic officials and one for Republicans.
Several boxes of classified documents, for example, have been found in the possession of Joe Biden at various locations, including his “think tank” in Philadelphia. Unlike Trump, Biden does not have the excuse of saying that he was president and thus could declassify documents when he stashed them all around town.
In one circumstance, officials have said that they fear that Hunter Biden, the president’s troubled son, shared classified information with his “business partner” from Ukraine. Several members of Biden’s family have received huge sums of money from foreign sources.
The current president is under investigation, but few think he will ever be charged with a crime, let alone go to jail.
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