Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) clashed with CNN host Dana Bash over the federal indictment of former President Trump saying it was nothing more than a political attack to stop him from returning to the White House.
“This is as political as it gets, and, frankly, Dana, it’s part of a pattern,” Jordan told Bash on CNN “State of the Union” reffering to the Trump indictment.
“We have seen it time and time again with the President over the last seven years. They try one thing.”
“Then they try another. They have continued to go after him. And I think anyone with common sense can see that,” he said.
Jordan also cited the standard by which the case should be judged as Bash became visibly frustrated.
“The standard is clear,” Jordan said.
The standard that Jordan referred to was a decision by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Nixon appointee, in Navy v. Egan.
“The president’s ability to classify and control access to national security information flows from the Constitution,” he added.
“He decides. He alone decides. He said he had declassified this material. He can put it wherever he wants. He can handle it however he wants,” Jordan continued.
“That’s the law,” Jordan affirmed at the beginning of the interview, referring to the Navy v. Egan decision.
Citing the indictment, Bash pointed out that the Secret Service was unaware that boxes of documents were located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and questioned whether Trump “actually declassified these documents before he took them.”
Jordan and Bash then clashed over an element of the indictment, which describes a July 2021 audio recording of a conversation at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
According to the indictment, Trump showed a “plan of attack” by a senior military official to people without a security clearance.
The indictment alleges Trump said the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret,” saying, “As president, I could have declassified it,” and, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
According to Bash, this meant the plan Trump supposedly showed was no longer classified.
However, Jordan rew a distinction between Trump saying he could declassify it and saying he didn’t declassify it.
“What you’re saying just doesn’t make sense on its face,” Bash said on Jordan’s distinction.
The CNN host then attempted to take a different angle, asking Jim Jordan about the alleged obstruction aspect of the Trump indictment.
But Jordan quickly clapped back, saying the obstruction requires an underlying crime, and there is none.
The pair went back and forth for around fifteen minutes, but neither backed down.
President Trump is due to appear in a federal courthouse in Miami for arraignment on Tuesday.
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READ: Ted Cruz: Trump Indictment Is “A Political Attack” from a “Corrupted and Weaponized DOJ”
