Donald Trump Could Be Indicted Over Mar-a-Lago Document Retention, His Lawyers Admit in New Court Filing

Former President Donald Trump's lawyers admitted that there would be a possibility that he could get indicted should he answer his special master's request to detail the classification status of the documents seized in his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last August 8.

Seeking the independent special master to review the documents has already been a daunting task for Donald Trump's team, receiving backlash from legal experts on delaying the rollout of the DOJ's investigation of his unlawful retention of the highly-classified documents.

Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie to be Donald Trump's Special Master for the Mar-a-Lago documents review, tasked to check more than 11,000 documents with mixed classifications: secret, top secret, and confidential.

Trump's Lawyers Says He Could Get Indicted If He Heeds Special Master's Requests

Last September 16, Judge Raymond Dearie announced his Draft Case Management Plan where he asked former President Donald Trump to detail the classification status of the documents to the court, The Guardian reports.

In a new letter sent on September 19, Trump's team objected to Dearie's plan to determine the classification status of the said documents.

Per the filing, if Trump proceeded to disclose such, it could possibly derail any further possible defenses should he be charged by the court. More so, Trump should not "fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident" during the document review.

Elsewhere in the filing, James Trusty, Christopher Kise, Lindsey Halligan, and Evan Corcoran, all of Donald Trump's lawyers, pointed out that they are in agreement with Judge Raymond Dearie's draft management plan, except for the declassification disclosure and some of the case's timeline and obligatory legal deadlines from both parties.

PBS described the resistance from Trump's team as "notable," considering that it was his camp who requested the special master in the first place. The publication also underscored that Trump's team has acknowledged that the review could possibly lead to an indictment despite the willful letter sent to the judge.

Speaking to prominent radio host Hugo Hewitt last week, Donald Trump said he could not imagine getting indicted as he had done "nothing wrong."

"I don't think the people of the United States would stand for it. And as you know, if a thing like that happened, I would have no prohibition against running. You know that," Trump claimed.

Consistently, Donald Trump has claimed that he had declassified the records in his possession but without evidence of doing such.

Donald Trump Could Face 10 Years in Jail Should He Be Found Guilty of Violating the Espionage Act

Days after the Mar-a-Lago affidavit was first made public, one of the statutes listed on the document stated that he had violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, a statute of the Espionage Act.

According to CNBC, violating the 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, which penalizes gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Legal experts mentioned that out of the other statutes that Trump has violated, the violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793 is the one that puts him in the most danger.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Ivan Korrs

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