The FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate could prevent the former chief executive from holding any political office in the U.S., two prominent Democrat lawyers suggested.
CNN reported Monday night that the raid on Trump's Florida home was related to the handling of presidential records, including classified documents, after leaving office. NBC News reported the search warrant was connected to the National Archives.
Marc Elias, Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign general counsel who helped push the since-discredited Trump-Russia collusion claims, took to social media following the raid and posted that "the media is missing the really, really big reason why the raid today is a potential blockbuster in American politics. [emoji pointing down]"
Elias' tweet included an image of U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2071.
In the paragraph that anyone "having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States."
Elias highlighted the last phrase.
Harry Litman, who was U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania under then-President Bill Clinton, tweeted that Elias made a "HUGE POINT: the records provision they're investigating carries the penalty that someone convicted 'shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.' So this could be the whole enchilada in terms of DOJ resolution."
Elias admitted that applying the law to a former president would be a challenge, but he then touched on something that likely pleased many Trump opponents.
"Yes, I recognize the legal challenge that application of this law to a president would garner (since qualifications are set in Constitution)," Elias tweeted. "But the idea that a candidate would have to litigate this is during a campaign is in my view a 'blockbuster in American politics.'"
Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI's former assistant director for counterintelligence, told MSNBC he wanted "to caution people" about potential prosecution.
"The majority of people in these cases ... If we're indeed correct that this is largely about a National Archives case, they don't get charged, but then again, the majority of people turn over their documents," Figliuzzi told MSNBC.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.