Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said attorneys for former President Trump in the classified and sensitive documents case will have a “bad Christmas” following a recent filing that hints prosecutors have additional evidence beyond what was previously known.
A court filing from Wednesday states that special counsel Jack Smith has begun providing the evidence he plans to use to Trump, including multiple interviews of the former president, which seems to indicate the government has recordings of Trump discussing the documents he held at Mar-a-Lago beyond what is mentioned in the indictment.
Whitehouse told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell in an interview Wednesday that the filing tells him Smith has a strong case and feels comfortable turning over the evidence early in the process.
“It tells me that there’s gonna be bad Christmas for the Trump lawyers as they open the different files of evidence and find out how awful the evidence is against their client,” he said.
“And it tells me that they want to get Trump’s attention early, by getting his lawyers the evidence that they need to be able to go to their client and say, ‘Hey, you are in real trouble here,’” Whitehouse continued.
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Judge Aileen Cannon has set a preliminary trial date for the case Aug. 14, but Trump’s team will likely delay the trial past then through pre-trial motions.
Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges earlier this month in relation to his handling of the documents that were taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act. He has also been charged with obstructing the investigation into his retention of the documents.
The indictment alleges that Trump had documents containing military secrets and information on U.S. nuclear programs, pushed his attorneys to help cover up that he had the documents, and showed sensitive documents to people who were not authorized to see them at least twice.
Trump has maintained that he did not commit any wrongdoing in the case and the charges are politically motivated.
Smith defended the integrity of the Justice Department and FBI after the indictment was unsealed and emphasized the “scope” and “gravity” of the charges outlined in the indictment.