Mary McCord, a former top official at the Department of Justice working on National Security issues, joined CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday morning to discuss the national security implications of the top-secret material recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

The conversation ended with McCord offering a dire warning related to the rhetoric coming from Trump allies, arguing that people like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are “giving permission” for Trump supporters to commit acts of violence by warning of riots if the former president is indicted.

“Can you tell us a little bit about what this damage assessment is going to be looking for and how significant is this?” Keilar began after noting director of National Intelligence Avril Haines notified Congress such an assessment would take place.

“Sure. So the damage assessment will involve all of the intelligence agencies reviewing what has been retrieved from Mar-a-Lago to determine how sensitive are these documents, what are these about?” McCord responded.

“How dangerous would it be to national security if they fell in the hands of those who are not authorized to have them? They’ll also be looking at do we have confidential human sources who are in danger right now? Do we have intelligence collection methods that are in danger because they may be revealed to those foreign adversaries and others who should not know about them, which could mean we would need to change some of our intelligence collection practices,” she continued, concluding “the national security implications of what was found at Mar-a-Lago are very significant.”

As the interview wound down, Keilar asked McCord, “Senator Lindsey Graham said that there would be rioting. He’s raising the specter, that there could be violence if there are criminal charges against Trump. You know, he may be right, but I wonder what you think about him choosing to highlight that in a conservative media space.”

“I think it is incredibly irresponsible for an elected official to basically make sort of veiled threats of violence just if law enforcement and the Department of Justice and a grand jury does their job,” answered McCord. Keilar and McCord were referring to Graham telling Fox News host Trey Gowdy on Sunday that “there will be riots in the street” if Trump is indicted.

“And, you know, this is part of the same kind of game plan that Trump has had for years. The wink, wink, nod, nod. People are angry, they may be violent. And then what he knows and what Lindsey Graham also knows who is himself in the hot seat in the investigation of Georgia, is that people listen to that and people actually mobilize and do things,” she continued, adding:

January 6th was the result of this same kind of tactic by President Trump and his and his allies. And it’s irresponsible, it’s dangerous, it’s a threat to our democracy. And I think he should be ashamed of himself.

“You see that as a veiled threat is giving permission to people to perceive like that?” followed up Keilar.

“I see it as essentially saying a threat to Justice [DOJ]. Justice, ‘if you do if you do seek an indictment and a grand jury returns an indictment, there’s going to be violence. So you know what you need to do to avoid that,’” McCord responded, arguing Graham’s remark was aimed at the Justice Department.

Watch the full clip above via CNN

The post Ex-National Security Official Slams Lindsey Graham’s ‘Veiled Threats of Violence’ If Law Enforcement Upholds Law Regarding Trump first appeared on Mediaite.

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