Trump is looking to blackmail the DOJ
Andrew Weissmann, a former Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor, said Friday that former President Donald Trump will be "prosecuted" over the way he handled classified documents after the FBI search warrant affidavit was unsealed.
Pictured above, Trump prepares to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on August 6 in Dallas, Texas.© Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Image
His comments come after the redacted affidavit was unsealed by Judge Bruce Reinhart on Friday, showing the way Trump handled classified documents that were retrieved from his Florida Mar-a-Lago residence during an FBI raid earlier this month.
General David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to a charge of mishandling classified materials. He was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000.
"When you compare it to precedent, we compare it to General Petraeus...what we are seeing is so much worse both in terms of the volume, the length of time, and then the sort of repeated obstruction and false statements that were made," said Weissmann, who servSpeaking of Trump's access to sensitive information, Cohen says "He's gonna use it as a get out of jail free card"Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday morning, former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said he wouldn't put it past the former president to threaten to reveal secrets to foreign powers if the Department of Justice tries to indict hiSpeaking with fill-in host Michael Steele on "The Sunday Show," Cohen was asked why he thinks Trump hauled classified documents to Mar-a-Lago with him after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Donald Trump May Have Leaked Classified Info To Iran Or Russia, Claims His Former Lawyer
Image: AP
The tribulations of former US President Donald Trump seem to increase further as his ex-personal lawyer has claimed that Trump may have disseminated top-secret information during his tenure. The latest claim from Michael Cohen, who was Trump's lawyer for nearly 12 years, in a video released on TikTok, said the former President used to carry the secret boxes along while he was travelling to other countries. In staunch words, he said Trump wants to use secret information to hold the country hostage and added he took the boxes to the hotel rooms of those countries which were considered "unfavourable" or "dangerous" to the United States.
"Let me be very clear, considering I know this 'Mandarin Mussolini' extremely well. Donald doesn't take boxes of material around the world for no reason at all. He took it for nefarious reasons," Business Insider quoted his words from the video he uploaded on a short-form video hosting service owned by a Chinese company.
"I stand firm when I say that Donald wants to use this in order to hold the country hostage. That's his goal as he knows his a** is in the grinder right now. He knows that he's cooked, that he's going to use this information, look for all we know, he's already given it away, but there's definitely more that's there," he added.
Further, the American lawyer contested that Trump could use the papers to blackmail or could release top-secret information to Iran or Russia. On August 8 this year, the law enforcement agency conducted a raid at the residence of the ex-US President in Palm Beach, Florida. According to the FBI officials, they had recovered several secret documents that were stored "intentionally" and "illegally", with wrong intentions. Later, on Friday, an FBI affidavit released claimed former US President kept classified documents, many of them top-secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence at his Florida-based residence.
Trump claims Mar-a-Lago raid is 'politically motivated'
According to the affidavit, the FBI recovered at least 14 "secret boxes" from Trump's residence. As per the court, the 45th President was not authorised to store highly confidential papers at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Of 184 documents marked classified, 25 were at the top-secret level. Some had special markings suggesting they included information from highly sensitive human sources or the collection of electronic "signals" authorised by a special intelligence court, according to the affidavit. Despite the revelation of such crucial information, President Trump contested the claims and painted it as a "politically motivated" witch hunt intended to damage his reelection prospects. He even took to his social media site and claimed his innocence and his cooperation with the federal agency officials.
"Based on everything you know about him, why do you think he wanted to keep those top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago," host Steele asked.
"He's gonna use it as a get out of jail free card," Cohen immediately shot back. "It's a way to extort America turn around to say if you put me in jail, if you go after me -- he'll even say his children -- I will have my loyal supporters who you do not know who has copies of information that may have been, and again this is my conjecture, that I would take those documents, I will release them to Iran, to China, to North Korea, to Russia.
"You want to take me down, I'll take the whole country down," he added.
"Remember, and I've said this with you 1000 times, Mike, Donald Trump doesn't care about this country," he continued. "He doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself."
