Now that we know Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed financial information from the Trump Organization on possible business deals with seven foreign countries, former FBI assistant director for counter-intelligence Frank Figliuzzi said Tuesday on MSNBC that the Justice Department and Smith also likely have all of former president Donald Trump’s phone records, which is very bad news for the failed ex-president.
Figliuzzi began by noting that statements Trump made at the CNN town hall recently were confessions of his actions regarding classified documents.
“But that crucial period after that sobering subpoena is slapped on you is that I have a choice,” Figliuzzi began. “I’ll either comply with the law, or I’m not. And everything he’s done after that has involved non-compliance with the law, and, in fact, thumbing his nose at the law. And as recently as the CNN town hall meeting, he actually said, ‘I took those documents. I had every right to. And if I did show them to somebody, and I can’t remember if I did or not, I had every right to.’ This is defiance that goes towards criminal intention. It is there. And, by the way, if the reports are accurate, this case is all but done.”
Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reported today that Smith is nearing the end of his investigation and has completed all of the interviews in the case.
That led host Nicolle Wallace to inquire, “Do we assume that people we maybe haven’t heard about, going in to talk to Jack Smith and his investigators, are part of the fabric of this part of the probe — foreign business dealings and Trump classified documents?”
“We know Trump doesn’t use email, but he is a prolific user of the phones, right?” explained Figliuzzi. “And so, guaranteed there have been subpoenas for phone carriers for his phone records throughout this period and watching his response to a visit from the head of the National Security Secretary, DOJ, then here come FBI agents, and there’s a subpoena. And you’re watching this, they call it ‘tickling the wire.’ See what responses — who is he calling? Who’s calling each other?”
That, Figliuzzi continued, is how Smith and the DOJ will determine if Trump was involved in espionage.
“So, you can develop sources. So, when there is great confidence that they have the goods on him, it is because they are targeting people who know for a fact what is going on. Now, let’s fast forward and tie that into this subpoena for whether or not the Trump Organization was doing any business with one or more, or seven nations. There is an interesting piece in the Washington Post that actually puts a post on it. And it is last month. If that is true, that is intriguing because it may imply that this is a pro forma routine thing. Let’s make sure there’s no surprises because the defense will say, ‘Look, you have no evidence that committed espionage, right? That he actually disseminated national security information to a foreign country?’ Well, we better look.”
“Maybe from those phone calls, maybe from those from sources, where we think, no, we better look at Saudi, or China, or Turkey. I don’t know. But it would go toward motive,” he concluded. “And it would be explosive if he would have actually shown documents, and what if those documents involved those very countries that are on the list? It’s even more concerning. And now you’re looking at maybe real-life espionage. We don’t know.”
