'The former president is going to be prosecuted' says ex-FBI top attorney
Andrew Weissmann the former General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, says former president Donald Trump will be indicted, based on his reading of the unsealed redacted affidavit used to obtain the “search and seize” warrant for Mar-a-Lago, unsealed by a federal judge Friday at noon.
“I have to say, when I read this today my big overarching takeaway is – and I know this is just a prediction and speculation, but I say it’s an educated one – is that the former president is going to be prosecuted,” said Weissmann, who began his DOJ career as a federal prosecutor successfully trying Mafia crime boss cases.
“I don’t see how you cannot” prosecute Trump, he continued. “Given this information, not just that it’s so clear that there is an active, thorough investigation and just how much was done here, but when you compare it to precedent, we compare it to General Petraeus, which happened when I was at the Bureau,” he said speaking of the former CIA Director who was arrested and prosecuted for sharing confidential material with his biographer.
“It is this, what we’re seeing is so much worse, both in terms of the volume [of documents], the length of time, and then the sort of repeated obstruction and false statements that were made,” Weissmann, who also served as the deputy director and then director of the FBI’s Enron Task Force, chief of the criminal fraud section of the U.S. Department of Justice, and then worked on the special counsel team headed by Robert Mueller.
“I don’t see if you’re somebody like Merrick Garland, who is a former judge who thinks about precedent, about treating like defendants equally, I don’t see how you avoid that conclusion in this case.”
David Laufman, a former Chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ), says: “If I were President Trump and his attorneys, I’d be fearful of getting what’s called a ‘target letter’ in the not too distant future.”
Top national security lawyer Brad Moss agrees, “I have seen enough, folks. Donald Trump will be indicted in the classified documents matter. I’m placing my marker.”
Weissmann: When I read this today, my big overarching takeaway is.. that the former President is going to be prosecuted.Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1563263204033122304FBI says Donald Trump combined top secret documents with magazines and personal correspondence
Twice-impeached former president Donald Trump mixed personal correspondence and magazines with classified documents, according to the FBI.
The FBI raided his Palm Beach residence Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and found that 14 of the 15 boxes recovered from Trump's home contained multiple classified and top secret documents combined with magazines, personal correspondence and miscellaneous newspapers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the Department of Justice to make a redacted version of the affidavit public by Friday. According to the document, FBI agents found that 25 of the 184 documents marked classified at Trump's estate were at top secret.
Most of the affidavit was redacted and the FBI said it was necessary to protect the safety and privacy of a significant number of civilian witnesses as well as law enforcement personnel "to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”
The 28-page affidavit noted that “evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed” would be found at Mar-a-Lago.
In a May 25, 2022 letter to the Justice Department released along with the affidavit, a lawyer for Trump said classified information may have been "unknowingly included among the boxes brought to Mar-a-Lago by the movers."
The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, said Trump had "readily and voluntarily" cooperated with NARA's request that documents be returned and said any investigation should not "involve politics."
Corcoran asserted that a president has the "absolute authority to declassify documents" and the "criminal statute that governs the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material does not apply to the president."
Government lawyers had opposed the release of the affidavit but the judge ordered it unsealed with redactions the Justice Department said were necessary to protect an ongoing investigation involving national security.
In its application for a search warrant, the Justice Department said the investigation was related to "willful retention of national defense information," an offense that falls under the Espionage Act, "concealment or removal of government records" and "obstruction of a federal investigation."
The warrant, which was personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland, authorized the FBI to search the "45 office" -- a reference to the 45th US president's private office at his Mar-a-Lago residence -- and storage rooms
In addition to investigations into his business practices, Trump faces legal scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the results of the November 2020 election, and for the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot -- he was charged with inciting an insurrection -- but was acquitted by the Senate.
AFPAffidavit suggests 'significant number of civilian witnesses' flipped on Trump: legal analyst
The newly unsealed Department of Justice affidavit shows investigators relied on evidence from multiple sources to justify their search of Mar-A-Lago.
MSNBC's Joyce Vance said the heavily redacted document, which the FBI used to obtain their search warrant for Donald Trump's private resort, revealed their concerns that witnesses could face threats as part of an effort to obstruct their investigation of classified documents improperly removed from the White House.
"One very interesting tidbit we get from the legal memo that DOJ submitted to unseal the redacted version of the affidavit is what I think is the first effort to quantify the number of cooperating witnesses that DOJ had when they obtained this search warrant," said Vance, a former U.S. Attorney. "They're talking about the need to protect their witnesses from any sort of potential harm, and they say that there are a significant number of civilian witnesses. So we don't know -- is that five? Is that 10?"
"But I think it's important to realize here that DOJ was not just relying on one or two witnesses," she continued. "Likely this is, as they say, a significant number of civilian witnesses as well as people in law enforcement who need to be protected as this investigation moves forward, and that puts into context what we're looking at here."
"We're talking about a former president of the United States who's clearly taken with him when he left office materials, whether they're classified or not, that could do grave damage to our national security if they're disclosed in an inappropriate fashion, and not only is that former president resistant to returning those documents, also DOJ has legitimate reasons to believe that there are risk to witnesses who are helping complete this investigation," Vance added. "That should be a sobering moment for us to realize we're in this situation with former President Trump."
Government lawyers had opposed the release of the affidavit but the judge ordered it unsealed with redactions the Justice Department said were necessary to protect an ongoing investigation involving national security.
FBI agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on August 8, seizing boxes containing a large amount of highly classified documents that Trump had not returned to the government despite multiple requests and a subpoena to do so.
The unredacted version of the affidavit likely explains in detail what the department is investigating in relation to Trump and could possibly reveal sources.
But Judge Bruce Reinhart accepted Justice Department arguments that there was a "compelling" need to mask significant portions of the document.
Reinhart had ordered the release of the redacted affidavit by noon (1600 GMT) on Friday -- and the fevered anticipation surrounding its publication caused the federal court website to crash.
Watch:John Dean predicts Trump scandal will expand further: ‘I see a conspiracy’
Watergate figure John Dean predicted the Department of Justice investigation into government documents Donald Trump took to Mar-a-Lago would expand to a conspiracy bringing in other defendants beyond the former president.
Dean was interviewed by CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, following the release of a redacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit.
"George Conway was on the show last night," Bolduan noted. "The way he put it, he said he remains convinced, it represents the shortest distance between Donald Trump and an orange jumpsuit. After what you've seen in this document, how likely do you think charges -- how likely do you think charges could be coming for Donald Trump?"
"Well, I think we have a case clearly from this affidavit, the more we've seen of it, that it is moving along," Dean replied. "It is a sophisticated case, it looks like they're giving it a lot of priority and attention. Clearly, it has gone to the attorney general to get clearance for a search warrant. this is the kind of case that they're not fooling around with."
"I think it is more than just merely the concern to retrieve the documents that they've got to make the point," he continued. "As I read the affidavit, I see a conspiracy."
"I think there are many more people involved in this," Deans said. "I think some of them have not surfaced even on our radar yet. This is a big case. How close are we? I would say in three or four months we may know how it will shake out."
Watch:
