Reacting to a report from the Guardian that the office of special counsel Jack Smith was forced to subpoena Donald Trump in an effort to get him to turn over what ended up being an empty government folder that was labeled “Classified Evening Briefing,” a legal expert explained that it was a warning shot across the former president’s bow.
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell recently reported, “the US Justice Department issued a subpoena for its surrender once prosecutors became aware that it was located inside the private quarters of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, two sources familiar with the matter said.”
Later on Sunday, one of Trump’s lawyers tried to dismiss the report by stating the former president was only using the folder to block the light on one of Trump’s phones at Mar-a-Lago, which was received with skepticism.
Nonetheless, according attorney Dennis Aftergut writing for the Bulwark, Trump and his lawyers should take Smith’s overly aggressive use of a subpoena very seriously because it is a sign that the special counsel is dead serious about not skipping the smallest details when it comes to his investigation of the former president.
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According to the attorney, “When zealous prosecutors are intent on bringing a case, they leave no stone unturned,” before adding, “when the crucial issue triggering a potential prosecution is obstruction, serious prosecutors do not put up with even a hint of it continuing. Trump’s team was evidently slow to give back the empty folder, even as they turned over other materials with classified markings (not to mention a junior associate’s laptop). In light of his history of resistance, the special counsel apparently lost patience and had a subpoena issued for the folder.”
Aftergut added that the folder subpoena is not the only indication that Smith is pushing hard, adding that his subpoena compelling former vice president Mike Pence to testify before a grand jury is an additional sign “that the special counsel is proceeding full speed ahead on that front, too.”
You can read the whole piece here.