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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Michael Cohen, a former longtime attorney for former President Donald Trump has said that there will “indicted and relatively soon” for Mr. Trump over his removal of classified records from the White House at the time of his exit.
Speaking
during an MSNBC interview on Wednesday, Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump could be
forced to testify before Congress as the Department of Justice (DOJ) prepares
to indict him, Newsweek reports.
"If the
adage that no one is above the law holds true, then Donald should have been
indicted already and facing consequences," said Cohen who served as Trump’s
lawyer for more than 10 years. "I think that there's going to be an
indictment and relatively soon. I believe there will also be congressional
hearings with Donald in the hot seat where, you know, either he'll come in
willingly—which I don't think he will—or via subpoena."
Who did Trump give classified documents to?
The FBI
discovered empty folders marked “top secret” during its raid but it’s not clear
who Trump gave the records to.
"The
real questions that they have to be asking right now is, you know, where are
the documents that were in the empty top secret files that were found at
Mar-a-Lago?" he continued. "I mean, that's really the big question.
And who did Donald give them to or show them to? ... Donald is a clear and
present danger to the national security and safety of this country and if this
doesn't prove it, I'm not sure that anything will."
Why was Cohen sentenced to three years in home confinement?
In 2018,
Cohen was sentenced to three years of home confinement after he pleaded guilty
to federal tax crimes, lying to Congress and violations of campaign finance
laws, Newsweek reported.
Cohen hinted
that Trump may have kept the documents containing nuclear secrets at his
residence so they could be used for “extortion” purposes should he be indicted.
"This
is all about power for Donald Trump," Cohen said, according to Newsweek.
"This is all about him still remaining relevant and exerting the power.
Whether it's going to be over the United States as extortion, that in the event
you indict me or even members of my family... If you indict me or try to
incarcerate me, I have nuclear secrets that I have instructed some of my
followers to turn over to our adversaries."
"That's
what I believe," he continued. "It's all about him maintaining power.
But not just over this country, over foreign countries as well... That's why we
have the Presidential Records Act. That's why we have laws... We're supposed to
know that these documents are in the possession of individuals who are supposed
to have them in secured locations, not somewhere in his office at
Mar-a-Lago."
A Washington
Post report had detailed how the former president took nuclear weapons documents
of a foreign country to his Mar-a-Lago home in violation of the Espionage Act. Trump
had argued that he declassified the documents before removing them from the
White House. It is not clear if he had the power to declassify the nuclear
secrets of a foreign nation.
Trump is
currently facing criminal investigation relating to the removal, mishandling
and storage of classified records.