other people? well, it s both. and the latter the waving them and showing them around to other people is really important for the espionage act. so, remember, the search warrant for the documents at mar-a-lago listed a bunch of different statutes, which does not have to be the whole universe. they could bring charges other than the ones that they have listed. but that s a statue that predates the whole classification system. so, those technicalities don t even matter. criminalizes taking, without authorization, documents related to national security, which could be useful to the enemy, or which could hurt the united states. and the showing and the carelessness and the content of these documents sort of tells us that this is something he would be willing to do. so, we might see charges related to bedminster too. but even if we don t, this is very useful in an espionage case from mar-a-lago. yeah, which is not something we ve been talking about mostly from obstruction, as it
house employees quickly packed everything into boxes, and shipped them to florida. white house employees they claimed trump had no idea what was in those boxes. second, trump s lawyers claim that trump kept all those documents in a secure place. trump s lawyers said all those classified materials were being kept at president trump s heavily secured home at mar-a-lago. and finally, trump claimed that none of this mattered anyway, because trump declassified everything before leaving office. you had said on truth social, a number of times, you did i did declassify. okay. is there a process? what was your process to their doesn t have to be a process, as i understand. you know, there s different people say different things. but as i say if you are president of the united states, you can declassified just by saying it s the classified. even by thinking about it you can? he said he didn t know the documents were classified but he kept them in a secure location and that he
pertains to mar-a-lago, not so much the espionage act. carol leonnig, i know the washington post has done some important so important we ve bookmarked it on our browser reporting about trump s motivation for holding on to these documents. and i wonder how you think this creates a more vivid picture of that motivation, and whether the degree to which this could really just be, as tali says, ego. so, i m glad you asked. and i could not agree more with tali farhadian weinstein about the importance of the motive, in telling the story. i ve interviewed enough prosecutors to know that the most important thing to know when they go to trial is, how do we tell the story how do we connect all these dots and make it make sense to our jurors? and there is a legal piece here. and there is a political and public opinion piece here. so, let s deal with the legal first. it s critical and we have been reporting that at the post for, i think, nine months, that prosecutors did
about merely and he thought he could use documents like this to help himself and maybe legacy build. and depending on what comes out we might learn something about his m o about how he managed to get documents into his hands that he should not have had, all of which can shed light on and support the mar-a-lago charges. and everything i have said is true even if it is all a ruse. even if he was waving around a blank piece of paper a blank piece of paper or something that was not even classified in the first place. prosecutors can still do all the work that i just described. as far as charges and building a case, which is i mean, is it a bigger deal in this instance, in terms of the charges it supports, in however tertiary or secondary away, the fact that he was knew the documents that worked classified and was in possession of them, in theory, or that he was waving them around and potentially showing them, ready to show them to
tertiary or secondary away, the fact that he was knew the documents that worked classified and was in possession of them, in theory, or that he was waving them around and potentially showing them, ready to show them to other people? well, it s both. and the latter the waving them and showing them around to other people is really important for the espionage act. so, remember, the search warrant for the documents at mar-a-lago listed a bunch of different statutes, which does not have to be the whole universe. they could bring charges other than the ones that they have listed. but that s a statue that predates the whole classification system. so, those technicalities don t even matter. criminalizes taking, without authorization, documents related to national security, which could be useful to the enemy, or which could hurt the united states. and the showing and the carelessness and the content of these documents sort of tells us that this is something he would be willing to do. so,