his lawyers believe the documents he was retaining wherever he may be retaining them are governed under the presidential records act. mr. smith believes they are governed under the espionage act. a self-inflicted wound. whatever he took from the white house if he had returned it, there would be no case. we would not be sitting here taking it. this, the presidential records act versus the espionage act. we will have to wait and see how a jury determines that. howard: have to wait and see a more detailed defense from the president s side. mollie, three things from the indictment. i understand hillary clinton, joe biden, the clintons, i get it. this all comes from insiders. two people, including a member of trump s pack, you should not be showing this it is classified but the military was not going wrong.
lot of legal people have been talking about this, but i think there s an important question on the presidential records act versus the espionage act and how those interplay. and i don t think until the supreme court ultimately hears this case and these arguments are made that we re going to know the answer to that. neil: you re quite right, the presidential records act allows a president and former president to access document, and that never came up in this 49-page account. but there are some specifics here, matt, that make you wonder. there are some special situations with the former president that just for want of a lacking of legal term the, look, the icky part would be the former president saying, allegedly, in these documents among other things, wouldn t it be better if we just told them, referring to the national archives trying to get the documents back, that we don t have anything here? and when his lawyers told him in may 2020 that he had to comply with a grand jury subpoena
defense information, withholding and concealing documents, making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice. now, the indictment describes an incident where trump was quoted as saying, quote, as president i could have classified it, and now i can t, but it s still a secret. allies and supporters contend he s being unfairly targeted. we re going to have to either hear from merrick garland or jack smith or we re going to have to hear from someone that has direct knowledge as to why they re going after donald trump and not others, and so, that two-tiered system of justice, neil, we ve talked about it before is the biggest issue here and that, plus the interplay and a lot of legal people have been talking about this, an important question on the presidential records act versus the espionage act and how those interplay and until the supreme court hears those case and the arguments are made, that we re going to know