Donald Trump Would Face 'Jail Time One Way or Another,' Legal Experts Say Amid New Civil Lawsuit Filed by New York Attorney General

Donald Trump is facing another legal hurdle on top of others after New York attorney general Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit and criminal referral against him.

Legal experts noted that the former president's "luck is running out," with a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, Laurence Tribe saying that Trump "faces jail times one way or another."

WGBH News reported that Tribe also cited the Justice Department's probe on the classified documents that Federal Bureau Investigation seized from Mar-a-Lago and that Attorney General Merrick Garland "has not been asleep at the switch" regarding the matter.

The legal expert also noted that none of Trump's arguments work, adding that "he is incriminating himself over and over and over again," referring to the former president's recent interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Trump said in the interview that he can declassify documents by just "thinking about it."

Tribe explained that Trump is using public statements like "telepathy defense" as a last resort.

A retired federal judge, Judge Nancy Gertner, said that she has no doubt that Garland will indict the former president for keeping the classified documents at in Florida residence.

Gertner added that the only question will be what happens with sentencing and how the evidence looks at that point.

Legal Experts on Donald Trump's 'Thinking About It' Claims

Legal experts have also commented on Trump's claims that the president can declassify government documents by just "thinking about it."

George Washington University law professor, Paul Rosenzweig, said in an emailed statement to Yahoo News that Trump's remarks reminded him of Johnny Carson's "Carnac the Magnificent" sketch." Rosenzweig, who is also a former deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Homeland Security department, added that "it is nonsense on stilts," and "also seems delusional."

One former U.S. attorney, Barbara McQuade, said in an email that to claim that a president can declassify documents just thinking about it "is absurd." McQuade is also a University of Michigan Law School professor. She noted that the president has many powers but one must actually execute those. She then said that pardon power cannot be used "just by thinking about it."

Jonathan Turley, a law scholar, said that if Trump could declassify every document with a thought, he could do it in every document with a "constitutional Jedi-like power." Turley had testified before Congress in support of Trump during the former president's first impeachment hearing in 2019.

Donald Trump's Lawsuit and Probes

Trump with his three adult children was accused of lying to tax collectors, lenders, and insurers in a fraud scheme that routinely incorrectly state the value of their properties.

The New York attorney general filed the civil lawsuit following the FBI investigates of Trump's handling of sensitive documents, as reported by The Guardian. Meanwhile, the FBI removed 11 boxes of classified documents, with some marked top secret.

In January, the National Archives had removed 15 boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago, also including top secret markings for the documents.

Trump is also caught in the middle of an investigation regarding the January 6 Capitol riot, which resulted in a violent insurrection caused by a mob of his supporters.

His niece, Mary Trump, had also sued him for allegedly defrauding her out of millions of dollars.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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