There is a "fog that's being created" around the charges against former President Donald Trump, as they're widely being called a classified documents case when the indictment concerns alleged violations of the federal Espionage Act, former Rep. Devin Nunes, now the CEO of Trump's Truth Social network, said on Newsmax Monday.
"They are not charging the president with mishandling of classified documents," Nunes told Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "I think this was done deliberately by the corrupt Department of Justice because all through that indictment, it talks about classified documents, but they don't actually bring a charge about classified documents."
In the federal indictment released Friday, Trump is facing 31 counts of violating the Espionage Act through the “willful retention” of classified records, and six counts that include obstruction of justice and making false statements.
"They are very careful about what they say, so they changed the definition of what everybody has been talking about in the fake news: classified documents, classified documents, classified documents," said Nunes. "Now they've changed it to national defense information in order to make a statute from World War I apply to the president.
"It's a great distinction, but again it isn't part of that because if they went with the Records Act, it's civil. This would never be in a federal case."
Nunes pointed out that he has dealt with classified documents for many years, including when he chaired the House Intelligence Committee.
"I was around when Gen. [David] Petraeus pled to a misdemeanor," Nunes said. "I was around when Hillary Clinton wasn't charged. I was even around in Congress when Sandy Berger, the Clinton lawyer, went in and stole documents from the National Archives."
And in Trump's case, "what I'm saying here is that this is the classic 'Show me the man and I'll show you the crime,'" said Nunes.
The terminology, meanwhile, is being changed so that "if somebody reads that, a layman, just the average person on the street, reads the indictment, you think, Wow, this is really about a bunch of classified documents," said Nunes. "It's not about that."
He added that he's concerned that the predicate for the indictment is the raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
In addition, Nunes said that last week, it was learned that when the federal archivist was put under oath by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee last week, he said there were two documents he was concerned about: one involving a letter from former President Barack Obama to Trump, and another being a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Trump.
"How are those not President Trump's?" said Nunes.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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