(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump has been blasting his historic indictment as “ridiculous,” saying he is being targeted by the prosecution. One expert attorney says Trump’s defense will rely on this strategy.
Legal analyst and attorney Misty Marris says Trump’s legal defense is likely to fall into “three buckets,” with the idea of selective prosecution being highlighted.
“The first bucket is going to be Donald Trump will argue that the documents he retained, he had the ability to declassify,” Marris said. “Then we’re going to hear number two. We’re going to hear this as a politically motivated attack, and that’s why he is being prosecuted when there have been other similar cases or similar instances that have not been. And then the third component of this will be, ‘what about all those other people?’ And, ‘are you going to go and prosecute them as well?'”
Trump was charged with 37 felony counts related to the continued possession of classified and sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property after leaving the White House.
Marris argues that while the defense will claim the possession of the documents was not illegal, it is the coverup that is the issue.
“It’s the coverup. It’s the willful, it’s the conspiracy. It’s moving the boxes. So those components of this indictment are very, very damaging to the President’s case, provided that the evidence supports what we see in this document,” Marris said.
Of Trump’s 37 charges, a majority of them are counts of willful retention of national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917.
“There’s a lot of prongs here, but I do think that a lot of this, if true, it’s the willful movement of the documents, the concealment, that’s what’s going to be the nail in the coffin,” Marris said.