A former Trump administration lawyer has predicted that Donald Trump "will go to jail" as the investigation into the former president's mishandling of classified documents continues.
Ty Cobb, a White House attorney from 2017 to 2018, was discussing the recent news that the National Archives planned to send records to special counsel Jack Smith that showed Trump and his advisors were aware of the proper declassification procedure, according to an exclusive report by CNN.
In a letter from May 16 obtained by CNN, acting archivist Debra
Steidel Wall wrote to the former president: "The 16 records in question all
reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them
directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should
declassify certain classified records."
In an interview with CNN
on Thursday, Cobb said he "would not necessarily expand the case to try to
prove the Espionage Act piece of it because there's so much evidence of
guilty knowledge."
All officials have to do to prove their case
is "show that Trump moved these documents at various times when DOJ was
either demanding them or actually present" and that he "filed falsely with
the Justice Department, had his lawyers file falsely with the Justice
Department, an affidavit to the effect that none existed."
This action was subsequently "shattered by the documents that
they then discovered after the search and the many other misrepresentations
that he and others have made on his behalf with regard to his possession of
classified documents," he said.
He said he thought it was a
"tight" obstruction case before adding: "Yes, I do think he will go to jail
on it."
Charges connected with mishandling classified documents
are punishable by up to 10 years in prison, per Reuters.
Cobb had
previously referred to his former boss as "a deeply wounded narcissist."
Infighting within Trump's legal team
In another CNN interview with a former Trump lawyer, Timothy Parlatore claimed that a member of Trump's legal team tried to block the others from conducting further property searches following the FBI raid, Insider reported.
Parlatore said on Wednesday that he was leaving Trump's legal
team.
Parlatore singled out one of Trump's lawyers, Boris
Epshteyn, who joined the former president's 2016 campaign as an aide and has
remained in Trump's orbit ever since.
"In particular, there's one
individual who works for him, Boris Ephsteyn, who had really done everything
he could to try to block us — to prevent us from doing what we could to
defend the president," he said.
Trump, who recently launched his
2024 presidential campaign, is currently fighting numerous legal
battles.
While the Justice Department is probing whether Trump
mishandled classified documents, it is also examining his possible efforts
to interfere with the 2020 election. Other investigations into his finances
and his role in the January 6 insurrection also continue.
