Former White House lawyer says Trump 'will go to jail' as Mar-a-Lago probe gathers momentum, per CNN
Isobel van Hagen
Sun, May 21, 2023 at 4:31 PM PDT
- A former White House lawyer believes Donald Trump will go to jail, he told CNN.
- Ty Cobb said there was "so much evidence of guilty knowledge," as investigations continue.
- The DOJ is probing whether Trump obstructed justice in bringing classified documents to Mar-a-Lago.
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
Former President Donald Trump appears in court for an arraignment, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in New York.(Timothy A. Clary/Pool Photo via AP)
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.
