Page 737 - Obstruction News Today

Up the pressure with a grand jury subpoena. and when that didnt work, that is what brought trump that fbi raid. >> ryan, a moment ago, i mentioned that there is new reporting for the new york times. and for sources told the paper that trump lawyer said all classified material had been returned. based on the property receipt, we know that that is not true. could this be part of the reasoning behind the obstruction charge? >> absolutely. so, everything he said there is true. and it does seem as th...

Authorities now have possession of all these documents, right? hands down, period. but trump had them for a year and a half. how are we sure that the document, the physical document, is the only manifestation of the? document are we sure that they didnt take votives photographs of it? are we sure that they didnt copy it? how are we sure that they didnt distribute it? >> well, we are not sure at all. and that is why the huge question is, why in the world was trump hoarding these materials? what h...

Position -- theyre certainly in the position of having being interviewed themselves, and either theyre going to have to disavow their client, meaning basically represent they were lied to when they were interviewed by the justice department, otherwise theyre going to have to end up looking like theyre complicit in the act itself, which is really, really problematic for them. if i were in that position, i would have to withdraw. you wouldnt give your reasons, but you would have to get out of the ...

At their own liability. they could be disbarred, have criminal charges. that letter itself might be the basis for the obstruction of justice statute that was listed in the search warrant, which is a good remind thaer the target might not just be donald trump. it may be other people as well. >> whether this was intentional or careless, that was one of the big questions right now. lets talk awe little bit more about the charges people could be facing, including the former president. this search wa...

Requiring documents be classified. the espionage act sounds like spying. but you are guilty if you are grossly negligent in taking or storing documents that could harm the security interests of the united states. and with trump its always the question of whether he had criminal intent. but charles, the evidence, what makes it incriminating? as you said first they asked him nicely here. got that polite requests from the national archives. and thats when they ratcheted up the pressure with a grand...

And that is why the huge question is, why in the world was trump hoarding these materials? what has he already done? and what was he planning to do? and trumps defense now of blaming the lawyers, well, i guess thats better than the early defenses he was rehearsing, which is that the fbi planted the stuff, or that trump declassify the material, but he didnt tell anybody. but remember, this obstruction of justice? or obstruction of an investigation? that means that the fbi had probable cause to th...

And when they conducted this search. that includes the espionage act, the mishandling of records pertaining to the national defense. so the type of forms, documents, papers that could be very harmful to the united states if they got into the wrong hands. also there is the obstruction of federal investigation, the obstruction of justice that is being investigated. there is also a criminal statute over records, maintenance of records, the concealment of records that prohibits removing them or hurt...

Know whos had access to this area in the last, you know, in the last few months. and what this investigation is right now is, you know, there might be people beyond the former president who could have legal exposure here because, again, this is -- these are very broad laws that theyre looking at. the other thing i want to mention is one of the three statutes thats being looked at here is one it has to do with obstruction. and it is a very broad version of obstruction in the sense that it has to ...

Raid itself and theres a lot of criticism were hearing on the right and so on, but the doj, the fbi, they dont go in on a hunch, do they? they have needed some actionable evidence to get that warrant, correct? >> exactly. they have to have to have probable cause that a crime occurred or is occurring and there is evidence of that crime at the place to be searched. and the search warrants are usually very particular. you may search this area or that area. and if you look at the warrant that was ju...

Those documents. thats how closely held they are. the president dove has a sweeping ability to declassify the documents. however theres two things that can be classified -- [inaudible] that is the most concerning to me. could be in these [inaudible] and that puts peoples lives at risk. >> totally makes sense. what about you, danny, because the statues driving the warrants include obstruction and espionage. from a legal perspective, how do you interpret that? >> espionage act sounds really bad, b...