If you were wondering whether or not failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump is worried about the case being built against him by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith in the matter of the hundreds of classified documents Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago in direct violation of federal law, you don’t have to look any further than a letter he recently sent to House Republicans imploring them to save him from prosecution by passing protective legislation.
As Andrew Feinberg of The Independent reports, “Lawyers for former president Donald Trump have asked the Republican-led House of Representatives to intervene by enacting a new law to protect the twice-impeached former president from the Department of Justice probe into his alleged unlawful retention of classified documents and his alleged efforts to obstruct that investigation.”
In a letter to Ohio Representative Mike Turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, attorneys Timothy Parlatore, John Rowley and James Trusty claim the Department of Justice — the executive branch department charged with investigating and prosecuting federal crimes — is “not the appropriate agency to conduct investigations pertaining to the mishandling or spillage of classified material” and allege that the department’s handling of the probe into Mr Trump’s alleged misconduct “is antithetical to the principles of a fair and impartial search for the truth”.
That letter, according to Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor and Chief Assistant City Attorney in San Francisco, is clearest proof yet that Trump has “no viable defense” for why he kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and is worried about the criminal charges that may soon be filed against him.
In an article he wrote for Justia’s Verdict website, Aftergut notes, “If these contentions are a preview of Trump’s defenses to an indictment from Smith’s grand jury, Jack Smith can rest easy. The arguments are so abysmally weak that they leave any knowledgeable observer with a simple inference: Trump and his lawyers know an indictment is coming soon and there’s nothing they can do about it but offer smoke and mirrors.”
The biggest hurdle facing Trump, Aftergut continues, is that “Jack Smith has mountains of evidence that contradict Trump’s claim that his improper possession and retention of those classified documents was inadvertent.”
It doesn’t take a prosecutor to infer that the central crime is likely obstruction of a grand jury investigation. (Trump) can’t hide from coming charges for obstructing the return of government secrets that weren’t his.
Long story short, Trump is screwed and can expect to be indicted for having the documents in his possession, obstruction, and violating the Espionage Act. If he’s found guilty, he will spend whatever remains of his life in federal prison.
Is Donald Trump worried? He clearly is, and the worst is yet to come.
