Jonathan Turley: This indictment is a ‘serious threat,’ ‘significant impact’
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley tells ‘America’s Newsroom’ that this indictment is a ‘different ballgame’ from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s indictment against former President Donald Trump.
Former President Donald Trump and two of his top attorneys representing him in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation parted ways Friday, just a day after he was indicted.
Trump, the current front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was indicted on at least seven counts involving obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and illegal retention of classified government material. He has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. The indictment remains under seal.
Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower in New York City, on Aug. 10, 2022. (James Devaney/GC Images)
EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP SAYS INDICTMENT IS 'ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL'
The lawyers representing him ahead of his indictment, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, resigned Friday.
"This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation," Trusty and Rowley said in a statement. "It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system."
"Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion," they added. "We have no plans to hold media appearances that address our withdrawals or any other confidential communications we’ve had with the President or his legal team."
TRUMP INDICTED ON FEDERAL CHARGES RELATED TO DOCUMENT HANDLING AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
Trump, taking to his TRUTH Social on Friday, said he will bring on a new attorney, Todd Blanche.
"For purposes of fighting the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time, now moving to the Florida Courts, I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later," Trump wrote. "I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they were up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil, and ‘sick’ group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before."
He added: "We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!"
Blanche, a former partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, is also Trump's defense attorney in the case brought against the former president by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Blanche previously represented Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in 2019, and pleaded guilty to foreign lobbying and witness tampering, as well as tax fraud and conspiracy.
The legal team shake-up comes after Trump announced he had been indicted in Smith's probe Thursday night.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Justice Department had been investigating the matter after the FBI conducted an unprecedented raid on his private residence in August 2022.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told Congress in February 2022 that Trump took 15 boxes of presidential records to his personal residence in Florida. NARA recovered the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago and "identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes." The matter was referred to the Justice Department by NARA.
Those boxes allegedly contained "classified national security information" and official correspondence between Trump and foreign heads of state.
Classified material that was reportedly confiscated by the FBI during the FBI's raid in August included a letter to Trump from former President Barack Obama, a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a birthday dinner menu and a cocktail napkin.
Trump last year said the National Archives did not "find" the documents, but that they were "given, upon request." Sources close to the former president said he had been cooperating and there was "no need" for the raid.
A Secret Service agent and a security guard officer guard the Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 31, 2023. (REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo)
The affidavit said that the FBI's investigation had "established that documents bearing classification markings, which appear to contain National Defense Information, were among the materials contained" in the 15 boxes Trump initially turned over to the NARA.
The FBI said it had "probable cause to believe" that additional records containing classified information, including National Defense Information, would be found on the premises of Mar-a-Lago home, beyond what he had previously turned over to NARA, according to the unsealed and heavily-redacted affidavit used to justify the raid.
The government conducted the search in response to what it believed to be a violation of federal laws: 18 USC 793 — gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; 18 USC 2071 — concealment, removal or mutilation; and 18 USC 1519 — destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The allegation of "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information" falls under the Espionage Act.
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