Trump Faces More 'Bad News' in Classified Documents Probe: Ex-U.S. Attorney

Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance said that former President Donald Trump might be facing more legal challenges after his attorneys reportedly couldn't find a classified U.S. military document that he previously spoke about keeping.

In March, Trump's lawyers handed over material in response to a federal subpoena related to the classified document, but they didn't find the document itself, two unnamed sources told CNN on Friday. Meanwhile, prosecutors obtained an audio recording of Trump during a July 2021 meeting at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he acknowledged that he kept a classified Pentagon document that detailed a potential attack on Iran.

The former president is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly mishandling hundreds of classified documents he took from the White House when he left office in January 2021. Last August, the FBI seized classified documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he ignored a subpoena that required him to return all the classified records in his possession. Trump denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he declassified the documents before moving them from the White House. Special counsel Jack Smith has been appointed by the DOJ to oversee the case.

Katie Phang of MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show asked Vance on Saturday whether or not the fact that the former president's legal team couldn't find the classified U.S. military document would factor in helping Smith prosecute Trump.

"Well, it's never a good thing when you lose a classified document, right? So this has got to be bad news for the Trump camp either way," she said. "This case, though...the die was already cast that Donald Trump would be prosecuted in connection with these documents, at least as early as the point where the DOJ was forced to obtain a search warrant to go and reclaim the documents."

Vance explained that there are some similar cases in which the DOJ wouldn't prosecute defendants, such as former Vice President Mike Pence's classified documents case. The former U.S. attorney added that the DOJ decided to close the investigation on Pence and not issue charges against him because he quickly returned the documents as soon as they were discovered.

"The distinction [between Pence and Trump] being Donald Trump who not only withheld documents, but who refused to return them, did everything he could to hide them, and now has either lost, misplaced or somehow mishandled a very important classified document, in a way that merits prosecution," she said.

Meanwhile, Trump has denied all wrongdoing after reports of federal prosecutors obtaining the audio recording of him admitting he kept the classified document. In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday, the former president was asked about the claims first reported by CNN that Smith's office has received the recording of him admitting to keeping the classified Pentagon paper.

"I don't know anything about it. All I know is this. Everything I did was right," the former president said.

"We had the Presidential Records Act, which I abided by 100 percent," he added, in reference to the act implemented in the wake of the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal, which means every presidential document must be sent to the National Archives when a president leaves office.

Newsweek reached out by email to Trump's media office for comment.