Sen. Graham warns ‘there will be riots in streets’ if Trump prosecuted

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has warned that “there will be riots in the streets” if former US President Donald Trump is prosecuted for his handling of classified documents that FBI agents uncovered during an unprecedented search of his private residence earlier this month.

"Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It's all about getting him,” the South Carolina senator said on Fox News, adding, “And I'll say this, if there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle… there will be riots in the streets.”

On Friday, the US Justice Department unsealed a key document related to its investigation of Trump; an affidavit used by the investigators to obtain a search warrant that allowed FBI agents to raid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on August 8.

The redacted affidavit showed that 184 documents bearing classification markings were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January. This is in addition to 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked “top secret,” that the FBI uncovered from Trump’s residence this month.

The affidavit and other legal documents are at the heart of a months-long effort by the Department of Justice to get back classified materials that Trump had taken from the White House before leaving office in January 2021.

Congressional Republicans have seized on multiple redactions that cloaked the full justification of the FBI search to raise suspicions that the whole investigation is a politically-motivated attempt by Democrats to discredit Trump, who has teased a 2024 campaign.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu demanded that the Justice Department exhibit more transparency by providing Americans with more information about the kind of secret documents that were found at Trump’s residence.

"My biggest criticism, and I think the concern of most of the country, is, where's the transparency, right?" the GOP governor told CNN on Sunday. "If you're going to take unprecedented action and raid a former president's house, well, you better have a strategy for unprecedented transparency," added Sununu, who's running for reelection this fall.

"You got to be able to show your cards when you're taking actions like this."

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One senior Republican senator, Roy Blunt of Missouri, said he suspected nefarious activity by Democrats ahead of the midterm elections in November.

 "What I wonder about is why this could go on for almost two years and less than 100 days before the election, suddenly, we're talking about this rather than the economy or inflation or even the student loan program," Blunt said on ABC News.

Democrats hope that a Trump prosecution would help stave off a Republican red wave in the midterms.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He has accused the FBI of corruption and is challenging the Justice Department in court for authorizing what he called an “un-American, unwarranted, and unnecessary” search of his private residence.

Trump says will take legal action over ‘illegal’ FBI raid

Former US President Donald Trump, whose private residence was recently raided by FBI agents in an unprecedented step, says he will soon take legal action over the matter.

Legal experts, however, contend that Trump’s defense strategy so far has been largely incoherent if not legally irrelevant. They suspect the former president could end up being prosecuted for mishandling classified documents with national security implications.

"When I read this today, my big overarching takeaway is, and I know this is just a prediction and speculation, but I say it's an educated one is that the former president is going to be prosecuted. I don't see how you cannot give in this information," Andrew Weissmann, a former DOJ prosecutor, told MSNBC.

Weissmann, who served as the General Counsel for the FBI, compared Trump's predicament to that of former CIA director and retired Army General David Petraeus, who in 2015 pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. He was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000.

During his interview with Fox News, Sen. Graham doubled down on his warning that a Trump prosecution would set off unrest.

"If they tried to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement there literally will be riots in the street," he said. "I worry about the country."

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