OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The attorneys for former President Donald Trump have made their start in the federal case against him by the Department of Justice.
The attorneys, as ordered by Judge Aileen Cannon, have filed for their security clearances, CNN legal analyst Shan Wu said.
“Shan Wu is with us as well, former prosecutor. As Paula mentioned, Trump’s lawyers are in touch with the U.S. Justice Department to at least start the process of getting these security clearances to work and to try the case. Walk us through how that works,” anchor Wolf Blitzer said.
“They are going to be seeking a hurry-up process known as an interim clearance. There won’t be time to finish a full background. They will interview neighbors, people that they had gone to school with. But to get the interim in place, the FBI can work quickly on that. As Paula said, I would expect them to be able to complete that process within a few weeks, assuming that Trump’s lawyers get all their paperwork in, which is primarily a laborious listing of where you have lived, worked, who could they interview to learn more about you. I think that can happen very quickly. It is more time, absolutely, because of the nature of the case,” the legal analyst said.
“I do think it will be so important for the special counsel to try to put in these guardrails of protecting this information, and that’s the way they can protect their case and even hold Trump accountable if he violates those rules,” he said.
A former Trump criminal defense attorney is arguing that the investigation into former President Donald Trump over alleged mishandling of classified documents may not even go to trial.
During an interview on Fox News, Timothy Parlatore — who served as a criminal defense attorney for Trump until last month — spoke with host Laura Ingraham about Trump appearing in Miami on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who Biden’s Department of Justice appointed.
Trump pleaded “not guilty” in federal court. 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.
Parlatore argued he believes there are fundamental flaws with the case, particularly over the grand jury process and breaches of attorney-client privilege. Parlatore said he believes this could result in the entire case being thrown out.
Parlatore said Trump’s attorneys should “attack the conduct of the entire investigation and show through death by a thousand cuts why this entire investigation is irreparably tainted by government misconduct,” adding: “The case, therefore, should be dismissed or, at a minimum, the prosecutor should be disqualified.”
Earlier this week, a concerning report emerged that Smith may execute a “backup plan” if his case in Florida against Trump does not stick.
NYU Law Professors Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann published an op-ed in The Atlantic, where they speculate that if the classified documents case against Trump in Florida falls through, Smith could pursue charges of “dissemination of classified documents” in the state of New Jersey in an entirely separate indictment.
“Smith appears to have taken a cautious, narrow approach. Even though the indictment describes alleged dissemination and disclosure of national-security secrets, the indictment did not charge Trump with those offenses,” they write. “One possible explanation for his decision: venue. The Constitution requires prosecutors to bring charges in the location—or venue—where the alleged criminal conduct took place. Justice Department prosecutors could not necessarily bring charges against Trump in Miami for alleged criminal conduct that occurred in another state, in this case New Jersey. But the absence of such charges in the indictment raises the intriguing possibility of another indictment to come, in a jurisdiction, no less, with a pool of jurors and judges more favorable to the government’s case against Trump,” the authors wrote in the report.
