Trump lawyer James Trusty was questioned Wednesday about a CNN report claiming that federal prosecutors investigating the former president’s potential mishandling of classified materials have an audio tape of Trump admitting that he kept a top secret Pentagon document—an apparent contradiction of his past defense that he was able to declassify material merely by “thinking about it.”
“Jim, if this was declassified, then why are we told that [Trump] is on this tape basically telling the people in the room that he can’t share it with them?” CNN Primetime anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Trusty, who said he doubted the authenticity of the CNN report, which was co-authored by Collins.
“You are told by the DOJ or FBI or whoever filtered that to you anything they can think of to justify the persecution,” Trusty said, adding: “They had rumors out yesterday. There is going to be one every day. They had rumors out yesterday characterizing the theoretical testimony of Evan Corcoran. It was completely false.”
When Collins replied to that story, which says the Trump lawyer Corcoran was dissuaded from searching Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office for classified documents that the FBI later found, was irrelevant, Trusty insisted that it was not.
“It calls into question whether any of their leak-based reporting is legitimate. And whether or not you got it through some third-hand person, this is leak-based reporting,” he claimed. “I’m not second-guessing you for running the story. But what I’m telling you is it’s factually inaccurate, and I’m not going to treat it like it’s gospel.”
Trusty, who recently came to his client’s defense regarding the documents investigation on Meet the Press, asserted that the multiple sources for the CNN story “want to try this case in the media.”
Later in the interview, CNN senior political correspondent Abby Phillip called attention to Trusty being hesitant to offer “explanations” for Trump’s actions.
“We invited you here to provide some clarity, and I—honestly, in this conversation—I’ve heard a lot about the leaks. I’ve heard a lot about the prosecutors. But I really haven’t heard any explanations for your client’s alleged behavior. And I think that’s the disconnect here,” Phillip said.
“Sure,” Trusty replied.
“You won’t even say whether the document we’re talking about is classified or not,” she continued, to which Trusty answered matter-of-factly, “Right.”
The document in question related to a potential attack on Iran.
“If you’re listening to this, most people would come away from it saying you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say they were all just declassified and not say that this document that we’re talking about is declassified,” Phillip said.
Trusty maintained his point of view.
“I actually think your viewers are smart enough to realize that I’m taking a stance on principle that no matter how feverishly you want to pursue the story that was leaked to you, I’m not going to dignify it by treating it as [a] fact,” he said. “We’re not going to try the case on CNN.”
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