Jeffrey Clark, who was an assistant attorney general in the Trump administration, said Friday the Justice Department’s indictment of former President Donald Trump contains grounds for a “dismissal.”
Trump announced on social media Thursday night that he had been informed he had been indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his handling of classified documents.
On Friday, the full 49-page indictment was unsealed.
Trump will be charged with 37 felonies in total. Thirty-one of the charges will be for alleged violations of the Espionage Act regarding a “willful retention” of classified documents.
The former president and leading GOP presidential contender in 2024 has maintained his innocence and will fight the case.
The indictment is the culmination of the FBI raid on Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Florida on Aug. 8.
It claims he showed classified documents to multiple people without security clearances on two separate occasions in 2021. The Justice Department said both alleged instances occurred at Trump’s club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
One of those alleged instances was leaked to the media this month.
CNN reported 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.”
It remains unknown who the network’s sources were.
Clark took to Twitter on Friday afternoon and said the leak to the media is grounds for Trump to have the case dismissed.
“I’m beginning to read the indictment against Trump,” he said. “But even three pages in, it’s clear that the leaks that preceded the indictment are far too close to what is actually being pleaded by DOJ to be a coincidence.”
“For example,” Clark continued, “in paragraph 6a on page 3, we hear about the recording of the Bedminster call, which the MSNBC’s of the world have been beating a dead horse about for quite a while based on such leaks. This means that Trump lawyers could not possibly be the source of the leaks.”
I’m beginning to read the indictment against Trump. But even three pages in, it’s clear that the leaks that preceded the indictment are far too close to what is actually being pleaded by DOJ to be a coincidence.
For example, in paragraph 6a on page 3, we hear about the recording… pic.twitter.com/HP7YErumRf
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) June 9, 2023
“Ergo, the leaks are coming from DOJ,” he said. “They must be investigated and punished.
“Also, this is grounds for granting a motion highlighting jury pool poisoning and dismissing the indictment before it reaches even its one-month birthday.”
The former DOJ official concluded, “All of this is so outrageous; it shocks the conscience. It’s fundamentally anti-American.”
Abolish the FBI and the DOJ
Arrest the leader for Treason. Execute upon a guilty verdict.
Well if the Democrats in the DOJ investigate and find out who leak & they are Democrats nothing would be done to them!! Now the Espionage Acts is Willful Detention of Classified Papers then Joe Biden if one for it and Bill Clinton & Hillary are Tops & Mike Pence too
My concern is will the insurrectionists refuse to leave the power in 2024? If we don’t succeed in the impeachment to remove Biden, Wray, et al, then when they lose again in 2024, who will force them out?