Former federal prosecutor Francey Hakes told Newsmax on Monday that she believes former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been treated "so differently" when it comes to allegedly mishandling classified documents.
"While it sounds damning, it looks damning for the president, so did the FISA warrant against Carter Page when I read it, and so did all the allegations that Adam Schiff laid against President Trump when the Russia allegations came forward," Hakes said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "It all sounded very damning, but the proof didn't end up being there. I don't know whether the proof is going to end up being there or not, but it does seem to me that President Trump is being treated differently than … the Hillary Clinton case."
"She was treated so differently," she continued. "She was brought in to interview at the FBI. She was allowed to have her lawyers with her. Her lawyers were given immunity before they were allowed to sit with her. Nobody ever seized her server to look at it, to do any kind of forensic review of it and you have here President Trump … his lawyers were actually brought into the grand jury and ordered by a judge to testify as to things that would ordinarily be considered privilege. There was a raid on Mar-a-Lago and then there was a grand jury investigation and then there was a special counsel. Trump and Clinton were definitely treated differently so it's hard for me to see Lady Justice with her blindfold on at this moment."
Trump was indicted by federal prosecutors Thursday on charges stemming from his possession of classified materials after leaving office. The former president faces 37 criminal counts, 31 of which are related to secret or top secret classified documents. He is also charged with obstructing justice, conspiracy, concealment and false statements.
Hakes said that in addition to proving that the documents Trump took were classified, the prosecution must also prove that his actions were "illegal, unlawful."
"The statute specifically says that the president would have had to be in unlawful possession of this national defense information and possess it willfully in order for this to be a crime," she said. "This is going to be a serious debate that will go eventually, all the way to the Supreme Court — maybe pretrial — as to whether or not the president can be charged with some kind of classified documents violation from documents that he lawfully maintained as president and then took with him into his post presidency, potentially for his memoirs or for a library. I think that's going to be a really critical and interesting question."
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