Does Trump have to go to jail? A former White House lawyer believes so

Former U.S. President Donald Trump could end up © in jail for the classified documents scandal, according to a former White House counsel ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP

He worked in the legal department of the Trump administration – now Ty Cobb is sure that his ex-boss must be in custody. New evidence against him has emerged.

Washington, D.C. – A former member of the White House legal department under Donald Trump believes that the ex-US president will have to serve a prison sentence. According to attorney Ty Cobb, the criminal investigation into the classified documents found at Trump's luxury Mar-a-Lago estate will ultimately lead to a conviction and jail time for Trump. This was announced by Cobb to CNN.

"Yes, I think he's going to go to jail for that," Cobb said after it was revealed that the National Archives had found numerous documents that supposedly prove that Trump must have known he shouldn't have taken the classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. In August 2022, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had raided Mar-a-Lago and seized 27 boxes of documents, 11 of which contained classified information. Several of them were subject to the highest level of secrecy and should therefore never have left the government's detention area.

Recently, the National Archives sent a letter to Trump, which is available to CNN. In it, it says that it found 16 documents that showed that Trump and his team of advisers were still informed about the correct release procedure for classified documents during his time in the White House. "The 16 records in question show communications between close presidential advisers, some of which were addressed to you personally — regarding whether, why, and how you should release certain classified information," archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote to Trump.

Mar-a-Lago secret document case: Lawyer from Trump's team throws down

Since the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago last year, Trump had repeatedly falsely claimed that he was allowed to take classified information with him when he left the Oval Office. He was also able to simply declare them as released. The recent discovery of evidence from the National Archives seems to refute Trump's claims that he was unaware that he had acted wrongly. Rather, the documents found suggest that he was fully aware of the rules, but chose to disobey them.

As soon as a president leaves office in the United States, his documents and records must be handed over to the National Archives for safekeeping – Trump has only partially fulfilled this duty and had retained numerous documents, including classified information. The classified documents case is one of the legal matters in which special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump. Smith has already instructed the National Archives to hand over the evidence documents, as reported by The Independent.

While the investigation into the case is gaining momentum, one of the lawyers in Trump's legal team has resigned his mandate in the matter. Tim Parlatore announced his decision last week, stressing that it was "personal" and had nothing to do with the prospects of the case. "I strongly believe that the [Justice Department's] team is engaging in misconduct to investigate non-criminal acts," Palatore said in a statement to CNN. (Johanna Soll