Page 618 - Obstruction News Today

>> just a follow-up on the, mark, its the obstruction charge, right? this is all obstruction or what it sounds like in full flower at many stages of the game, at many stages that the legal saga, trump is acting as a road block, effectively, for what is to be done correctly by the letter of the law, is that right? >> there is no doubt, in my mind, that if once contacted by the national archives, when it was learned that documents were missing at the white house, original classified records, that ...

Possibility that the obstruction case may be broadened to go ahead and include the espionage act counts and the possession, illegal possession of the classified documents, given -- given the extent that -- and solely because of the fact that trump keeps lying about what the law is. and they may decide that its important enough for the country to fully grasp that. they dont need that to prove the obstruction. trump could be right that he can declassify these things between foot massages. but the ...

Chair and chief of staff at the defense department, he came forward and said, i knew it was a standing order, and he was pulled before the grand jury. we have not yet heard what in fact he said, and he has not come back on air anywhere to say or provide any proof that this existed. but trump has some very significant legal exposure, and it may be unfortunately politically that the biden-pences timing, bad timing of having mishandled national defense information, may cause some hesitation of the ...

Obstruction. national security attorney mark zaid making that point last night in light of brand-new reporting on new evidence that could potentially strengthen special counsel jack smiths case into trumps mishandling of classified documents. cnn is reporting that the national archives told the ex-president that it has 16 records that the archives are going toe hand over to special counsel jack smith that show that trump knew about the correct declassification process. quote, in a may 16th lette...

List of trump allies. i dont think its a complete list, but this is who we know has been interviewed and/or before the grand jury investigating the classified document, mishandling, and obstruction. christina bobb, the lawyer who wrote the attest station, kash patel, walt nauta, the one-time military aid who followed trump to mar-a-lago. pat cipollone, former white house council. patrick philbin, one of the deputy white house councils. molly mitchell, i believe thats a personal aide. dan scavino...

May be more, but everything we know to be under investigation is something trump has confessed. yeah, i called the code red is the answer to everything. did you take it? yes, i did. was it classified? i thought it was declassified. i could close my eyes and think it so. did you keep it? yes, i kept it. did you show to it anyone? no, i dont think so. >> like claire said, when youre president, you can take it. and it magically becomes declassified which isnt the case at all. and that is important....

Far. >> and melissa, the government has already showed us some of what they are building on the obstruction side. it is in sort of these extraordinary releases of documents because of the extraordinary nature of going to a judge to seek approval for a search of mar-a-lago. so we know that they had evidence. and part of the reason they went before a judge to search mar-a-lago is they had probable cause to belief there was more evidence of obstruction. how do you assess the strength of the governm...

First blush, if it was just a matter of taking the documents and not doing all the cover-up. >> i remember when i was covering the mueller investigation, there were some in the trump era doj who were skeptical of the obstruction case because of what they thought was a weakness in the underlying crime. i dont agree with that assessment. but you certainly cant say that here. he is essentially confessing on tv the taking the classified documents. and then the obstruction, they have security camera ...

Having recently appeared before that grand jury. last night, mark zaid reiterated that things are looking grim for the ex-president. >> if everything is as we are hearing it to be, with respect to obstruction, then there are looking to be some very significant serious criminal charges coming. and i would imagine were talking weeks rather than months at this point. >> donald trump under criminal investigation over his handling of classified documents and his obstruction of that investigation. thi...

>> nicolle, its sort of striking to think about all of the different criminal exposures, legal exposures that trump has going on right now from the probe in georgia to the civil trial with e. jean carroll and everything going on with jack smith. they all sort of cluster around a central set of facts. this is a man who believed he was entitled to do whatever he liked because of his office, because of his station. and who care whats the rules were? that was pretty much the watch word for his presi...