The indictment of former President Donald Trump on charges of mishandling classified documents is an overreach by the government, according to Paul Kamenar, counsel for the National Legal and Policy Center. Kamenar also sees the charges as a potential rallying point for Trump’s supporters.
“I think the government has overreached in this area and I think they’re going to have a hard time to prove these charges and convict Donald Trump,” Kamenar said in an interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report” on Friday.
Kamenar said the indictment is a “mixed bag of charges.”
“They have to prove both a willful and knowing intent to violate the law, and I think that’s going to be difficult for the government to prove his mental intent, because Trump all along has said that he has the right, as he did, to declassify documents as president of the United States. And when he left office, he took these documents with him, and he’s said those were declassified,” Kamenar said.
Potential Legal Risk for Trump
The “willful retention of national defense information” charge, of which Trump faces 31 counts, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Three more charges of concealing documents and a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice each carry a 20-year maximum prison sentence. The scheme to conceal documents charge and the false statements charge also carry a maximum term of five years in prison each.This 37-count federal indictment comes after Trump was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a 34-count indictment alleging he falsified business records while getting adult film actress Stormy Daniels to agree to a non-disclosure agreement.
Kamenar said the Manhattan case is derived of “basically nickel and dime charges,” and even if Trump is found guilty on any of the charges, “those don’t involve jail time.”
He said the special counsel indictment in the classified documents case, by comparison, is more serious because they are federal charges with a potential 20-year prison term. Still, Kamenar predicted Trump is not likely to see the worst of the potential punishments in this case, considering how other high-profile figures have been treated in past classified documents cases.
“Even if they do find him guilty, I think the punishment would be basically probation. After all, that’s what the court did with [Gen. David Petraeus],” Kamenar said.
Charges Could Unite Trump’s Base
Trump, who is running to replace Biden in the 2024 presidential election, has already cast the special counsel investigation as political interference by the Biden administration. Kamenar echoed those concerns in his own comments with “Capitol Report.”“This is interfering with the presidential race because as we know, Donald Trump is leading in the polls to be the Republican nominee. So these charges will interfere with his campaigning. I think they want to go after him so he won’t be the nominee,” he said.
Whether or not the indictment was intended as a political attack to hurt Trump’s 2024 campaign, Kamenar said the indictment could bolster Trump’s claim to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“Supporters will say he’s being persecuted and rally around him and actually, you know, solidify his base and support him and he'll be the nominee,” he said.
Jared Craig, founding partner and president of the pro-Trump political action committee Legacy PAC, said rallying to Trump’s defense is exactly what the Republican Party ought to do.
“I honestly think that the GOP should rally around defending President Trump because this sets a very bad precedent ... and it seems third-world nation,” Craig told “Capitol Report.”
Craig also said Republican leaders who remain silent on Trump’s case are not loyal to the “America First” agenda and should be replaced.
“We’re here lockstep, and we all should be in line with the agenda and the policies, the America First candidates, with President Trump at the very top of that,” Craig said.