"Colossal blunder": Legal experts say Trump's Fox News interview was an "admission of guilt"

[marmar]

(Salon) Former President Donald Trump claimed in an interview on Fox News that he was too busy to sift through government records to return classified materials before he was indicted by the Justice Department earlier this month.

Trump, who pleaded not guilty last week to illegally retaining national security information and obstructing government efforts to retrieve it, told anchor Bret Baier that he was too busy to separate the documents sought by the National Archives from his personal items they were stored with in the dozens of boxes he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.

"Because I had boxes, I wanted to go through the boxes and get all of my personal things out," Trump said. "I don't want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy, as you've sort of seen."

Baier noted that the indictment alleges that he told his aide Walt Nauta to move the boxes "to other locations after telling your lawyers to say you'd fully complied with the subpoena when you hadn't." ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/06/20/colossal-blunder-legal-experts-say-trumps-fox-news-interview-was-an-admission-of-guilt/

[Buns_of_Fire]

1. They should probably start Mirandizing him before all interviews. nt

[Ocelot II]

2. Ah, the "too busy" defense; that's his ace in the hole.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. Golfing rakes a lot of time and energy. nt

[Ocelot II]

9. Especially when you have to drag your lard-ass around in a golf cart.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. Keep digging that hole deeper TFIFG.

The more he talks, the deeper the hole gets and more evidence for Jack Smith to use. For EVERYTHING said by him from here on out is admissible in a court of law.

But then, TFIFG is too stupid to know that. I am surprised FOX did not tell him that before he opened his mouth.

[FakeNoose]

4. Keep talking Chump! This will be over rather quickly

[bucolic_frolic]

5. He has no conception that there is anything different than exactly what he wants to do

No accountability to anyone, ever. la-dee-dah

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. Kings don't answer to anyone. nt

[Johonny]

6. He will delay the trial and run for president

As long as that delusion lasts. Then take a plea bargain. I don't think he expects to face a trial.

[musclecar6]

8. Yeah

I think all we care about is that he gets tried and convicted of some or all of these bad things he's got himself into. Then as long as he is taken out of the picture of running for anything or getting in power ever again, so that it doesn't reek havoc and worse than he did last time going into the future.

[niyad]

11. The point IS, you F'n TRAITOR**, you had NO business even having those boxes in

the first place. NOBODY believes you packed anything ourself, and NO professionals would have done that. Your personal stuff was a plant.

[NowISeetheLight]

12. Busy?

I wonder how many golf rounds TFG played before the search warrant?

[Recycle_Guru]

13. This orange slug is such a stain on our history

He should be tried, convicted and spend time in prison. even if only 6 months.

[moonscape]

14. Who doesn't mix classified

docs in with their golf shirts and underwear.

[VMA131Marine]

15. The only strategy for Trump's lawyers at this point

should be to get Trump to agree to a plea deal. He has eliminated any possibility of a real defense with his statements to the press.

[Golden Raisin]

16. He is constitutionally (no pun intended) unable

to keep his big yap shut. It's like trying to stop Niagara Falls.

[Raven]

17. Red herring? Trump may be trying to throw the investigators off the trail of sold documents. If he

makes himself out to be careless, stupid and addled, maybe they'll drop it at that.

[Wednesdays]

19. Not much chance of that.

The feds (Jack Smith, especially) have dealt with criminal big shots that make tRump look like the amateur he is.

[Raven]

21. We know that, but Trump thinks he's smarter than everybody.

[ecstatic]

18. What I heard from the clips

Someone gave trump the false impression that NARA doesn't have the power to do shit--that all they can do is ask for their records back, but those requests can be safely ignored. I wonder who told him this?

trump was surprised when he was subpoenaed. He said that had never happened before (well duh, I guess no one ever ignored repeated requests to return sensitive documents before). Again, I wonder who fed him this information and why. That person may have been part of a scheme to profit off of the documents.

This guy actually thinks the absurd defense of having golf attire and ties mixed in with top secret documents will get him off. It's completely insane! If clothes were actually found in the boxes, it would suggest that he purposely stuffed clothing into the boxes with classified documents to trick White House staff and make it easier to steal the documents. I haven't read the indictment yet but did they mention anything about clothing found in the boxes?

trump is becoming more irrational, more illogical, and more stubborn by the day. I don't know if it's due to dementia or complications from his numerous mental disorders. He believes he is the smartest person in the room. He's unaware of how ignorant and unhinged he sounds. I hope he does a dozen more interviews so that the clowns who still support him will get it through their heads that the man is not even fit for dog catcher. You can't have someone like that making important decisions. He can't even make the right decisions in his own life much less for the country.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

23. He's not insane

He's stupid. Make no mistake: He's not detached from reality. He knows things like what day of the week it is, where he is, and what he's doing.

When stupid people are scared and desperate, they grasp at anything and everything that sounds smart to them, but is actually so dumb that it borders on--but never actually becomes--crazy.

[Maeve]

20. He has the right to remain silent but not the ability eom

[sheshe2]

22. Baier(Fox) vs Collins (CNN)

Baier asked tougher questions and pushed back tfg lies than Collins did.