LOS ANGELES (KNX) – Former President Donald Trump will be arraigned in Miami on charges accusing him of mishandling illegally classified documents on Tuesday. Former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen told LA Morning News that Trump would have been better off following in the footsteps of President Joe Biden and Former Vice President Mike Pence.
“If he had simply did what Pence, did what Joe Biden did…(if) he found and said ‘here, take it all, come on in, take it all,’ you know, there would have been some uncomfortable discussions for him with the National Archives with the Department of Justice,” he said.
Eisen, who served as counsel to House Democrats in the first Trump impeachment and was ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama administration, said while Trump is entitled to the benefit of the doubt, the indictment is a self-inflicted wound.
“This is the mother of all self-inflicted wounds and it stems from that spirit of illegality that began on his first day, first hour, first minute in office when he said, ‘Hey, I'm gonna do what I want. I'm not gonna follow the constitution on of those illegal foreign government payments.'"
On Friday, the Justice Department disclosed the indictment against Trump with 37 felony counts, 31 of them related to his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Eisen said the indictment is “just the tip of the iceberg of the evidence and the proof.”
“I'll be somewhat surprised if there's a superseding indictment or there are additional charges coming down the line just because…when you're prosecuting a former president, it's different rules that apply in day-to-day prosecutions,” he said.
Trump’s indictment hearing will take place Tuesday at 12 p.m. PST.
Click here to listen to the full interview.
Related
Related
