But some Republican Party officials have broken ranks to defend the Justice Department and criticize Trump’s handling of classified material. Recently declassified records show FBI agents found more than 100 classified documents at the Palm Beach, Fl., resort, as well as dozens of empty folders marked classified in Trump’s personal office. Trump and his team have given conflicting defenses about how and why the classified documents got there. Those GOP figures have slammed the former president over the revelations.
William Barr
Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, said last week that the Justice Department probably has “good enough evidence” against the former president that it has reached this point in its investigation. “I can’t think of a legitimate reason why they should have been taken out of the government, away from the government, if they’re classified,” Barr said of the classified documents Friday on Fox News. He also responded to criticism of the search of the former president’s home as “unprecedented.” “I think the driver in this from the beginning was a lot of classified information sitting at Mar-a-Lago. People are saying this was unprecedented, it’s also unprecedented for a President to take all this classified information and put it in a country club,” Barr said. Trump then slammed Barr on his Truth Social platform, calling the former AG a “weak and pathetic RINO” or “Republican in name only.”
John Bolton
Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, said last month that the former president’s differing explanations and defense of documents found in his home “show a real level of desperation.” Some Trump officials claimed the then-president had a standing order to declassify documents — but Bolton, who served under Trump from 2018 to 2019, said he was not aware of such an order during his tenure. Bolton told CBS News last week that Trump’s handling of the documents “shows a real disregard for the seriousness of the classification at issue,” noting that most offices would be very clear and careful in handling such sensitive material. “This to me is more evidence that Donald Trump has not paid much attention to the sensitivity of classified information,” Bolton said.
Karl Rove
Karl Rove, who was a senior adviser to former President George W. Bush, said last week that Trump had “no legal authority” to move classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. “Why he kept these materials when he had no legal authority to do so under the Presidential Records Act is beyond me,” Rove told Fox News. By withholding the documents, Rove said, Trump took “the property of the American people.” “A president doesn’t have the right to walk out of the White House and pick and choose which documents he wants to take with him,” Rove said.
Liz Cheney
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who recently lost her re-election bid to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s GOP primary, stood firm in her denial of the former president after the investigation into Mar-a -Lago. “Even more indefensible behavior by Donald Trump exposed this morning,” Cheney said on Twitter last week, sharing the now widely circulated photo of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump and now sits on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Alyssa Farah Griffin
Former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin on Sunday hit out at Trump’s handling of classified material. Griffin told CNN’s “State of the Union” that there are “very specific protocols” for how to handle such documents, even for those in government. “There’s no way that’s acceptable if you don’t believe in a two-tier justice system where a former president is above the law,” he added. Griffin raised the possibility that Trump may have received the classified documents without his knowledge – but also questioned whether the former president may have kept the documents for future use as “leverage” to “help his future political ambitions”.
Charlie Dent
Former Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent (R) on Saturday pushed back against the fury of Trump and his supporters over the FBI investigation. Russian forces get no combat bonuses in Ukraine: UK intelligence Zelensky hits out at Moscow over gas export delay: ‘Russia wants to destroy the normal life of every European’ “If any member of Congress absconded with classified material, I can assure you that a G-Man, someone from the FBI, would have been showing up at their homes and demanding that they return that information,” Dent told CNN. At a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., on Saturday night — his first since the search of his home — Trump blamed the FBI for the investigation at Mar-a-Lago, calling it “one of the most shocking abuses of power by any government in American history.”
