A top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller predicted that former President Donald Trump will be prosecuted over his handling of documents.
Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official and FBI general counsel who was known as Mueller’s “pit bull,” made the “educated” assessment based on the release of court documents Friday underlying the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month.
“When I read this today, my big, overarching takeaway is … the former president is going to be prosecuted,” Weissmann said on MSNBC.
MUELLER PROSECUTOR REACTS TO ‘SHOCKING’ UNREDACTED BARR MEMO ON TRUMP OBSTRUCTION
Weissmann said he cannot see how prosecutors could avoid going after Trump given that it is “clear there is an active, thorough investigation and just how much was done here.”
Weissmann: When I read this today, my big overarching takeaway is.. that the former President is going to be prosecuted pic.twitter.com/St47SeLcuA
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 26, 2022
Contrasting this matter with the case of David Petraeus, the former CIA director and retired U.S. Army general who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information, Weissmann argued, “What we are seeing is so much worse in terms of the volume, the length of time, and then the repeated obstruction and false statements that were made.”
He reasoned that someone like Attorney General Merrick Garland, who “is a former judge who thinks about precedent — about treating like defendants equally,” could not “avoid that conclusion in this case.”
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The court filings unsealed on Friday show federal investigators discovered 184 unique documents with classification markings. The affidavit, which featured many redactions, noted the “government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” and said there is “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found.”
Trump claims he broadly declassified all the documents the FBI seized from this private club and denies any wrongdoing.
