Former Trump administration attorney Ty Cobb said Wednesday on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” that the Department of Justice has its foot on former President Donald Trump’s neck.
Burnett said, “When we’ve talked about this so many times, you have told me the special counsel has an open and shut obstruction case in the classified documents probe. But now we know the special counsel has this tape of Trump, admitting there are limits on his ability to declassify documents. Let’s just start with that one very specific point. What does that mean for possible charges here?”
Cobb said, “One, it further enhances the obstruction case because it eviscerates the two defenses that Trump has put forward – the first being that merely by taking documents, he declassifies them or that he has the authority if he is playing with the ducks in the hot tub to declassify them in his own mind. Those are out the door now because he’s admitted that he understood there were restraints on what he could do with documents.”
He continued, “The second is, it could put additional pressure on Jack Smith to tie the obstruction case to the actual possession and use or dissemination of the classified documents. My own view is he doesn’t need to extend or compromise the obstruction case by taking on the burden of the classified documents case because he gets the full benefit of the classified documents evidence anyway in through statements like this. So I think this makes the obstruction case more compelling.”
Cobb added, “I don’t see any eagerness on the part of Jack Smith and his team to slow down. I think they have their foot on his neck. I noticed that Trump – as he did three days before he was indicted by Alvin Bragg – was raising money today on the alleged coming indictment by Jack Smith. So I think Trump and his own team believe this is gonna come quickly.”
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