Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and CNN’s Dana Bash engaged in a heated debate about Donald Trump’s legal predicament now that he has been charged with improper handling of secret documents.
Jordan, the head of the House Judiciary Committee, debated Bash on Sunday about the 37 criminal charges that Trump is facing for obstruction, conspiracy, and unlawfully holding onto confidential information. The congressman began by dismissing the charges, pointing to Trump’s power to declassify the records and decide who would have access to their contents while he was still in office.
Jordan was immediately questioned by Bash about the indictment’s proof that Trump admitted to owning secret documents that he, as a former president, had lost the authority to declassify.
According to the indictment, Trump admitted on video that he was unable to show the paper to visitors he was speaking with because it was a classified document outlining a plan to strike Iran that he had taken with him when he left the White House.
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Jordan disregarded this section of the indictment and asserted that Trump had completely declassified everything. Jordan responded, “I go on the president’s word,” when challenged with providing evidence to back up his allegation.
The congressman complained about the “political operation” by special counsel Jack Smith, but Bash persisted in questioning him about the audio in which Trump claimed that he could have declassified the records he had but was no longer able to do so. Jordan was questioned by her as well about whether he believed the papers were actually secure given their dispersed location throughout Trump’s estate.
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Bash noted that Jordan essentially accepted Trump’s word in order to disprove the obstruction accusation, and that’s where the discussion went off the tracks. Jordan answered by lamenting the fact that Hillary Clinton was not held accountable for the email incident.
