🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Former President Donald Trump's latest defense in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe put "another nail" in his coffin, said former United States Attorney Joyce White Vance.
Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 federal charges in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation into whether he improperly stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Federal prosecutors alleged in the indictment that an audio recording revealed the former president admitting to keeping a classified document about a potential attack against another country during a July 2021 meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"These were the papers! This was done by the military and given to me. I think we can probably...declassify, right? See as president, I could have declassified it, now can't. But this is classified," the former president can be heard saying on the audio tape. CNN obtained and aired a copy of the recording on Monday night.
His latest defense of the audiotape following its release does not bode well for him, said Vance during an appearance on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show on Saturday morning.
Trump, in remarks to ABC News' Rachel Scott and Semafor's Shelby Talcott on Tuesday, said he was not displaying any classified documents while speaking and was instead "just holding up papers." He downplayed his words as merely "bravado."
"When you promote your own defense by saying that you're lying, because that's what bravado is—it's lying—Trump has in essence put another nail in his own coffin," Vance said.
Phang also questioned Vance about a New York Times report that subpoenas are continuing to be issued out of the grand jury that indicted Trump last month. Vance said that any subpoenas would be related to new charges, such as more counts of retention of documents or obstruction.
Vance added that any new subpoenas from the grand jury could be related to the Bedminster document.
"How did that document get there, and was that part of a deliberate act of obstruction? An effort to remove those boxes from Miami to New Jersey before prosecutors could take a further look at what Trump had in his possession?" she asked. "The indictment intimates that that's the case, but there aren't a lot of details, so that could be forthcoming."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.
Other legal experts have also weighed in on Trump's "bravado" defense.
"Donald Trump's last gasp to try to avoid accountability for his crimes is to say that he was lying about holding a classified document. He calls it bravado," said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Wednesday. "The bravado dog doesn't hunt. It is the last gasp of a guilty person—who was caught committing the crime, who was caught confessing to the crime—to say, 'made it all up.'"
About the writer
Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more