Ex-U.S. Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy Explains Why Trump’s Presidential Records Act Defense May Not Work | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Daily Wire News.

Publisher's Note: This series of posts on this one issue - The Unprecedented FBI Raid of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate - can all be found here on ENC NOW.

    Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy disputed claims on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump was allowed to retain the sensitive documents that were recovered from his home because of the Presidential Records Act.

    Appearing on Fox News while Trump was being arraigned in a Miami courthouse, McCarthy, who is a staunch conservative, pushed back on claims that the classified material that Trump is accused of improperly retaining were his "personal records."

    "As far as the Presidential Records Act is concerned, I must say, I'm tempted to say that the argument is frivolous," he said. "What President Trump is accused of hoarding down at Mar-a-Lago is not presidential records. These are agency reports. Their agency reports are not what the Presidential Records Act is directed at, it's not even clear that they would count as presidential records."

    "But in terms of what he's allowed to keep as personal records, there's not a conceivable contention that the information that was down there is covered because what personal records under the Act are is things in the nature of diaries and journals and the like," he explained. "This doesn't come close to that, this is agency reporting. And on the Espionage Act, you know, the word 'espionage' doesn't appear in any of the codified provision of the crimes that went into federal law as a result of the Espionage Act."

    McCarthy said that there are "various prongs" in the Espionage Act and that the one prosecutors charged Trump with has nothing to do with spying. It pertains to "government officials, who are trusted with national security information, who hold it in unauthorized circumstances, that is in a place where it doesn't belong, and who willfully retain it when there was a demand made by the government" to return it because they are not legally allowed to have it.

    "So what President Trump is accused of is that part of the Espionage Act," he said. "It's irrelevant whether there was an intent to harm the United States or not. That's not a defense to this charge. What the charge is, is he was unauthorized to have it, he willfully retained it. They demanded to have it back and he refused. That's the crime."

    WATCH:

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who is right-wing and has defended Trump in the past, explains why claims from Trump's allies that Trump should not be prosecuted because of the Presidential Records Act are not legitimate. pic.twitter.com/jNoYJnZXaN

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 13, 2023

poll#157

Was it a judicious ploy for Joe Biden's FBI to execute the unprecedented raid of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate?

  Yes; the Cheneys despise this former Republican president, and for good reason ... so they say.

  No; never has a former president been treated with this level of vindictive abuse by those temporarily in power.

  Who cares? It's Trump.

932 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#165

In light of continued developments, primarily since 2008, there exists in these United States a Legal System which operates on a proved Two Tiered approach to justice rendered, which primarily benefits Democratic Elites and Woke Ideological Virtue Signalers, representing their co-dependent wards, to the expressed exclusion of normal hardworking American citizens: What is your suggestion in remedying this widespread injustice and, if not corrected, its existential outcome for our Constitutional Republic?

  Complete overhaul of the Department of Justice and their enforcers - the FBI - to reflect a far more honest justice system to keep patriots remaining calm.

  Disband the FBI, and request that congress investigate all unethical and non patriotic practices to partially right the wrongs of a distrusted and politically weaponized "Department of Justice."

  Continue with the current system since the two tiered justice system has been so remarkably beneficial to Democratic Socialist political hegemony; chronic distrust in institutions notwithstanding.

674 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?