On Sunday (June 4), former Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said he wouldn’t be surprised the former President is not charged after special counsel Jack Smith concludes his investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
In response to a question about being surprised if Trump did not get charged in the case, Parlatore said, “No, not at all. Not at all.”
He explained to NBC’s “Meet the Press” host that every case had to be evaluated based on the facts of the law and whether the claims were “provable.”
Parlatore added, “From a discretion point of view, is this something where a prosecution makes sense?”
Parlatore, who recently left Trump’s legal team due to “internal” issues, said he expects more hurdles could make deciding whether to indict the former President complicated. For example, if the case involves potential national security information, he said, whether to declassify the information in question could affect decisions about whether to prosecute.
Last week, CNN reported that prosecutors obtained a recording of Trump admitting to the existence of a classified document related to Iran.
In addition, the recording revealed that Trump acknowledged that the material was classified and wouldn’t be allowed to share it.
Parlatore suggested that even if Trump had done “all the things that they’re saying he did,” prosecuting may not be the best decision given the issues that could arise.
He added that classification wasn’t “binding on the jury,” suggesting that Prosecutors would have to show the jury the Classified information to prove that it constitutes national defense material.
When questioned about the federal grand jury hearing evidence would be resuming, Parlatore said that hadn’t changed his views.
