CNN anchor Chris Wallace speculated Friday on “New Day” that former President Donald Trump’s lawyers did not participate in the hearing to unseal the Mar-a-Lago affidavit because there’s probably a lot in the documents “that is very damaging” to Trump.
Co-host John Berman asked, “So, Chris, there was this hearing before a judge in Florida over whether to release the affidavit to justify the search warrant into Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump had lawyers there for the arguments, but only there. Why is that important that they were there as observers and not more than that?”
Wallace said, “Well, it’s fascinating because, you know, he put out a statement saying that he wanted the entire affidavit released. The Justice Department, Merrick Garland, who said they don’t want any of it released because they think it will identify kind of confidential sources, that it will hurt their prosecution of the case, maybe jeopardize national security. Trump, in public, said that he wanted it all released. But when they had the hearing yesterday, even though, as you point out, he had a lawyer, Christina Bobb, in the courtroom, she didn’t say anything. She didn’t make a motion. She could easily have said, you know, ‘The the person whose home was investigated here. He also supports release of the affidavit.’ But that case had to be made entirely by media people, people like CNN and other news organizations, to release the document. She didn’t say anything.”
He added, “And that’s because I think. Frankly, he knows that while it might help him a little bit in the defense, there’s probably a lot in that affidavit that is very damaging. Yes. It’s only allegations. It hasn’t been proven. Probable cause, not beyond a reasonable doubt. But, you know, he probably doesn’t want to have that affidavit released because there would be a lot of stuff in there that he wouldn’t like.”
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