Page 604 - Obstruction News Today

You assess as we sit here today the strength of both prongs, the sort of underlying crime, if you will, of the mishandling of the classified documents, perhaps violations of the espionage act, as well as the incredibly brazen obstruction of that investigation? >> yeah. so even before donald trump opened his mouth really about this investigation, even before we knew about the dress rehearsals of moving the boxes of evidence and even before we knew about the iran tape that came out last week about...

Wolf, where i say eiive almost seen it all. its very clear they are trusting and verifying every single fact of the investigation. >> very clear indeed. >> ely honing, what do you think it all means for this possible case for obstruction? >> this tells me they have to be in an end game right now. defense lawyers commonly ask for and are given this type of meeting with prosecutors towards the very end of a case to try to convince them not to bring charges. usually you ma i have to take a meeting ...

There is an indictment coming, there is nothing nefarious going on. all of the other reporting around jack smiths investigation of this does point to the idea of intent and intended obstruction. i think those are the key differences. he was talking about donald trump in the context of hillary clinton and her emails on the server. its apples and oranges. this is not about that. its about whether donald trump took the documents which mike pence and joe biden also did, then he did a different thing...

The e. jean carroll case. and it also highlights, as you did, that he understands the difference with the classification that he doesnt have the power to always do it. so it muddies his waters in many different ways, but jack smith already has a very strong case for the espionage act, the retraining of documents act, the 1001 having an agent lied to the doj for him, and the obstruction. so i think it makes the memo longer, but the memo is pretty complete. >> congressman, lets talk about confiden...

Lied to his lawyers in the past. so you cant really trust, the lawyers cant find it because, he has misled his lawyers in the past. or, and, or, he made the whole thing up because he was mad at general milley and he needed to come up with a quick lie to explain his behavior, which would not be shocking, given what we just saw in the e. jean carroll case. also, it highlights as you did, he understands the difference with the classification that he doesnt have the power to always do it. so it mudd...

Them, even though they then requested, and now he has the story that they cant find it. and lets also remember that he has lied to his lawyers in the past. so he cant really trust his -- the lawyers cant find it, because he -- he has misled his lawyers in the past. or, he made the whole thing up because he was mad at general milley and he had to come up with a quick lie to explain his behavior, which wouldnt be shocking given what we saw in the e. jean carroll case. and it also highlights, as yo...

Were classified. so, those two questions that you, ask are the key ones. where they wrongfully detained, and afterwards, when there is notice that, hey, these are not your, as you must return them, was there obstruction? so, really, you have a couple of different statutes involved. but to really different fundamental questions. the first one, it could be explained away by mistake. it could be excusable. the problem with the second one -- >> the thing is, the former president has said over and ov...

Inappropriate and i shouldnt have done this. biden has been cooperative but some of the comments could have been more contrite. but former president trump, hes in a different league. hes under investigation for obstruction for a reason. they are still not convinced they have all of the documents back. >> and one other point, paula, how is doj handling, not just one thing that jack smith is doing, hes also doing january 6. what could we expect as it relates to the multiple investigations even wit...

>> you know, this entire brouhaha about the tape and what it means is important. but it is not the be all and end all. first of all, its obviously important. because it does show that trump is a liar. because he has had inconsistent defenses. it does show that, on some level, he understands the concept that everything was not declassified. but remember, the classification issue -- the truth of the matter is, no classified documents are required for the elements of the crimes that we are talking ...

The retention of records, the 1001 false witness statements, and obstruction, and i should come relatively soon. >> devastating for our country that a former president of the united states would be in this position. peter, you have coverage donald trump extensively. what do you think about these developments? >> i think thats right. i think it shows that there is sort of zeroing in on this case. and im not a lawyer, obviously. but you talk to the lawyers, you hear again and again, as we just hea...