Legal experts are going through the FBI’s redacted affidavit used to obtain the “search and seize” warrant to enter Mar-a-Lago three weeks ago and remove presidential records, including documents classified and the highest levels, believed to have been stored there by Donald Trump.
It appears the general consensus from legal experts is this document is damning for the former president, both on the volume of documents he allegedly unlawfully held, and on the nature of the documents: not only classified but classified at some of the highest levels, and so dangerous if they were given to America’s adversaries that, as the affidavit states, “lives can be at risk.”
Attorney David Laufman, a former Chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ), called the volume of evidence the FBI and DOJ has “pulverizing” in an appearance Friday on MSNBC, and that Trump should expect to get a target letter.
“If I were President Trump and his attorneys, I’d be fearful of getting what’s called a ‘target letter’ in the not too distant future,” Laufman said.. “It’s pretty clear to me that the government had a pulverizing amount of information that more than exceeded the standard of probable cause, and that they are all in.”
“They are all in building a prosecutable case for a violation under the Espionage Act, Section 793 E, for willful retention of classified information in an unauthorized place, and more than that, extrapolating from redactions [in the affidavit] after a section where they describe Kash Patel, trying to claim that President Trump declassified all this stuff. It’s a lot of redactions, and I’m guessing that’s where they are just knocking down piece by piece. The notion that this stuff was declassified, as you pointed out, in your intro, we’re talking about a holy of holies of sensitive intelligence, information, human, FISA. There wasn’t even any mention of Special Access Program material. He’s in deep jeopardy.”
On Twitter Laufman added, “In real estate, it’s about ‘location, location, location.’ When it comes to unlawful retention of classified docs, it’s all about ‘willfulness, willfulness, willfulness.’ And looks like the government has that evidence in abundance.”
Attorney and senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, CNN commentator and former FBI agent Asha Rangappa observes: “The extent of what has been compromised in our intelligence gathering capabilities is going to be staggering.”
Elliot Williams, a former deputy assistant attorney general at DOJ and an assistant director at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement tweeted: “The law says a ‘TOP SECRET’ document is one that would cause ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security’ if released.”
“HE HAD AT LEAST 25 OF THOSE IN HIS HOUSE,” Williams stressed.
Former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts on MSNBC raised the issue that the large number of classified documents were not secured, and anyone with a cell phone could have taken photos of them and distributed them. It’s unknown if that has happened, hen says the affidavit suggests.
Top national security lawyer Brad Moss concludes, “I have seen enough, folks. Donald Trump will be indicted in the classified documents matter. I’m placing my marker.”