By Steve Neavling
Former President Trump’s mouth may have gotten him in trouble – again.
Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said Trump made “a straight-out confession” when he delivered a speech at his Bedminster resort after pleading not guilty to 37 federal charges in Miami.
After calling special counsel Jack Smith “deranged” and a “thug,” Trump claimed that he had “every right under the Presidential Records Act” to keep records at his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left office. He also said the boxes contained “all types of personal belongings.”
But the Presidential Records Act requires all presidential documents to be sent to the National Archives after the commander-in-chief leaves office because the records belong to the federal government.
Speaking to MSNBC, Weissmann said Trump’s comments about intentionally keeping the records could be used as evidence of admission of guilt.
“Those are admissions,” Weissman, who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry into Trump, said. “Part of what he said is just a straight-out confession. It’s not a defense. It’s a confession.”
“He said, ‘I could take these.’ When you are charged with the illegal retention, the illegal possession of the documents, it is not a good idea to say, ‘Hey, you want to know why I took these? Because I could,” Weissmann explained.
“That is not a defense to that charge. That is an admission to the charge.”
