OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Social media users noted a rather large mistake in former President Donald Trump’s arrest document after it was posted online.
Trump pleaded “not guilty” through his attorneys in federal court on Tuesday. The federal judge granted Trump a pretrial release with no special conditions, with the exception of no contact with witnesses.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents. If he is found guilty on all counts, Trump — who is President Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s presidential election — could face decades in prison.
But Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, who oversaw Trump’s arraignment, appears to have put the wrong date on the arrest document.
Does anyone notice that it looks like the date is incorrect on the document? It looks like the handwritten date says JULY 13, 2023 instead of JUNE 13, 2023.
— David (@Metsfan281) June 14, 2023
Several Twitter users noted that the signature date appears to say July 13, 2023, not June 13, which was Trump’s actual court date.
That said, Newsweek explained that the document can be easily amended.
“Mistakes such as the incorrect signing of a date in a document are known as a clerical error and normally easily amended. Under Florida state law, the court can correct such clerical errors at any time on its own initiative, or on the motion of any party,” the outlet reported.
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly showed classified documents to a number of people who did not have the proper security clearances on at least two separate occasions. The DOJ alleges that both instances took place at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Details regarding one of the alleged instances were leaked to CNN.
The network reported on June 2 that federal prosecutors had “obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.”
The charges “include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations,” ABC News reported.
“Maximum sentences for the respective charges, per their statutes, range from five up to 20 years, although any eventual sentence should Trump be convicted would likely be much lower,” the outlet added.
One of Trump’s attorneys ripped Joe Biden’s Justice Department during a Monday interview and said that her client was “100 percent” allowed to possess the classified materials he’s been indicted for having.
Christina Bobb told Newsmax that Trump’s authorization comes from the Presidential Records Act while going on to blast the way he’s been treated by the DOJ and FBI compared to President Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence, both of whom also had classified materials in their possession — though as vice presidents they are not covered under the same act.
“Donald Trump was 100% authorized to keep everything he kept. And it was actually the Department of Justice that actually had to return materials because they took things they were not allowed to possess and had to return them,” Bobb noted further.
“President Trump had every right to have possession of those documents. And the only statute that applies to Donald Trump on this is the Presidential Records Act 44 U.S.C. Section 2203 Alpha, which specifically says the president and only the president is the one who has authority to make this call,” she told Newsmax.
“I think their case is dead on arrival,” she predicted.
Other experts have noted that the leak of information to CNN could wind up being grounds for the case to be dismissed outright, since it likely came from the Justice Dept.
