During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, former First Lady Michelle Obama said her husband—former Democratic President Barack Obama—"would be in somebody's jail" if he'd stolen classified documents from the White House.
Obama was responding to a joke host Jimmy Kimmel made about whether her husband had ever wrapped gifts in “top secret documents he borrowed from the White House"—a reference to the ongoing federal investigation into former Republican President Donald Trump who denied he broke federal law regarding presidential documents he'd spirited away from the White House.
Michelle Obama laughed at Kimmel's jab at Trump. Her response "we don't have any" classified documents in the Obama household elicited cheers from the audience.
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Michelle Obama said:
"We don't have any... And if we had, I guarantee you my husband would be in somebody's jail by now."
As funny as the exchange between her and Kimmel was, Michelle Obama's response underscores the seriousness of Trump's crime.
Trump's legal troubles erupted over the summer when he alerted the world the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had executed a search warrant for his Mar-a-Lago estate. Sources said Trump was in possession of classified material—including nuclear secrets—that prompted the intelligence community to voice concerns about national security.
Afterward, Trump claimed he had the ability to declassify any and all documents or information have been widely disputed by experts who've noted there is a specific federal process that must be adhered to before any information can be declassified.
Naturally, his claims have been shut down by federal prosecutors who have heard the explanation from Trump's attorneys, who have made the ability to withhold some documents from review critical to Trump's defense.
Attorneys with the Department of Justice (DOJ) are reportedly putting Trump on the "fast track to prosecution." They have maintained that the material Trump removed from the White House should never have been and that the intelligence contained within these documents was relevant to global affairs.
But given the plethora of evidence that shows Black men have often received harsher sentences for the same crimes committed by their White counterparts, it is not untoward for Michelle Obama to suggest that former President Obama would be "in jail" right now rather than allowed to conduct an exhaustive legal defense.
Many concurred.
Michelle Obama's appearance on Kimmel's program—part of her 13-date book tour—comes just days after The Washington Post reported that an investigative team Trump himself hired found two new items marked as classified in a storage container used by him in Florida.
The documents have since been turned over to the FBI and immediate details as to their contents was not available. Federal prosecutors have already requested a federal judge to hold Trump and his legal team in contempt for failing to turn in all documents.
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