Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested Tuesday that former President Donald Trump was wrong to keep classified documents at his residence.
The former president was indicted Friday on seven charges and 37 counts in relation to possessing over 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Thirty-one counts of the indictment allege Trump violated the Espionage Act by willfully retaining national security information.
“Two things I think are both true at this point,” Pompeo said. “First, if the allegations are true, and there’s lots of indications that they are, President Trump had classified documents where he shouldn’t have had them and then, when given the opportunity to return them, he chose not to do that for whatever reason … Brian, you talked about me having classified documents, I handled thousands and thousands of them during my time in Congress and as CIA director and secretary of state.”
“I suppose we can all make mistakes and get them to the wrong place, but when somebody identifies that, you gotta turn them in. So that’s just inconsistent with protecting America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and if the allegations are true, some of these were pretty serious, important documents. So that’s wrong,” he continued. (RELATED: ‘Incredibly Reckless’: Nikki Haley Changes Tune, Goes After Trump Over Indictment)
The indictment, overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith, also charges Trump with one count of “conspiracy to obstruct justice,” one count of “withholding a document or record,” one count of corruptly concealing a document or record,” one count of “concealing a document in a deferral investigation,” one count of “scheme to conceal,” and one count of “false statements and representations.”
Trump aide Walt Nauta is charged with allegedly moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago after Trump had received a subpoena to return the material.