Here’s how…
On Sunday, Timothy Parlatore, a former lawyer of Donald Trump, stood up in defense of the ex-president, by drawing a parallel between the ongoing investigation into classified documents and the previous scrutiny surrounding Hillary Clinton’s emails.
According to Newsweek, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently conducting an investigation into allegations of mishandling classified documents by former President Trump. These documents were reportedly taken from the White House when he left office in January 2021. In August of the same year, the FBI discovered classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. This discovery occurred several months after Trump was issued a grand jury subpoena in May 2022, which demanded the return of all classified documents he possessed.
During an interview on Sunday with Chuck Todd, the host of Meet the Press, Parlatore was questioned about his expectations regarding potential charges against Trump in the documents case. Todd specifically asked if Parlatore would be surprised if Trump didn’t face any charges. In response, the lawyer confidently stated, “No, not at all.”
Parlatore emphasized the importance of examining each case based on the facts of the law, assessing the provability of specific claims, and determining the rationale behind the prosecution in question.
“Is it something where it is a slam dunk case, where some of these things could be interpreted a few different ways? And also, when it comes to a specific issue like this, where we are talking about potentially national defense information, is it the type of thing where they want to declassify these things, if they haven’t already been declassified and put them out publicly?” Parlatore asked.
He then said, “Even if he did a lot of the things that they’re saying that he did, prosecuting him, they’re the same reasons why you wouldn’t want to prosecute him as to why back in 2016, I was [with] the opinion that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be prosecuted, because there are all of these other problems.”
During his time as president, Trump frequently criticized Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential election, for her alleged use of a personal email account and server while she held the position of secretary of state under the Obama administration. The FBI initiated an investigation to determine if any classified information had been transferred or improperly stored on her personal system. Despite the investigation, Clinton remained in compliance with the procedures and was not charged with any wrongdoing.
At the time, the FBI concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support criminal charges against Clinton based on the information made public by the agency. In their report, the bureau acknowledged that while they did not find explicit evidence of intent to violate laws regarding the handling of classified information by Clinton or her colleagues, there was evidence of their handling being characterized as extremely careless when it came to highly classified and sensitive information.
During his Sunday interview, Parlatore clarified that the classification of documents does not hold legal authority over the jury. He emphasized that for the jury to assess the case, they would need to directly examine Trump’s classified documents and be presented with evidence demonstrating that the records indeed contain national defense information.
WATCH:
WATCH: Fmr. Trump attorney @timparlatore says the case for not prosecuting Trump over classified docs is similar to that of not prosecuting Hillary Clinton over emails.
“You have to … take these documents … and prove to [a jury] that it constitutes nat’l defense [info]” pic.twitter.com/3uym4Y1HeX
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 4, 2023