Trump Admits to Willful Retention of Docs in Interview

Brandon Van Grack was a guest on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, discussing former President Trump’s claims that he declassified the documents discovered in the Mar-a-Lago raid.

“Even if the theory itself is ludicrous, it is almost unknowable, in terms of the criminal charges, it ultimately should have at best a negligible impact, if any impact whatsoever,” Brandon said. “Ultimately, declassification, whether the documents are classified or unclassified, it doesn’t actually affect the three charges at issue here. In fact, two of the charges don’t have anything to do with the sensitivity of the documents at all. The one that could, it’s involved in the Espionage Act, it also doesn’t use the term ‘classified’ and what I’d say is – because I think we need to be careful – if the documents were declassified, it could have an impact, but the notion of a blanket declassification order that was secret and not communicated to anyone, it’s unlikely to have any impact.”

Watch the interview.