Dem
51
GOP
49
Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump's former press secretary, has said she saw Trump showing classified documents to people on his patio at Mar-a-Lago. This destroys one potential defense Trump has, namely, that some unknown person put a bunch of classified documents in a box under his golf shirts and he didn't know he had them. If an eyewitness says she saw him showing them to people (and presumably people without security clearances), there goes the "I didn't know about them" defense. She isn't the only person to say she saw Trump holding classified documents after he left the White House, but more eyewitnesses makes the case stronger. This is especially true since Trump has now claimed that the documents he was holding during the audio recording made at his Bedminster club were not classified. If Grisham testifies in court that she saw him show documents that she could see were classified to other people, that may be even stronger proof than the audio recording.
It could lso open new charges against Trump. The current federal indictment charges willful retention of classified documents and lying to the FBI about having them. He hasn't yet been charged with revealing classified information to unauthorized people. Based on Grisham's eyewitness remarks, the indictment could be updated to include that as well. Also, no doubt Special Counsel Jack Smith is going to ask Grisham to whom Trump showed the documents and were there any other witnesses? This could open a whole new investigation and add tons of new evidence to the original ones.
Grisham is very angry about Trump's being so casual about classified documents. She knows firsthand how hard it is to get one because the military is so worried about national secrets leaking out. She tried to get one herself and it was denied over a $13 bill that she didn't know about and didn't pay. At the very least, it is probably safe to say that when Smith interviews her, she is not going to try to cover up for Trump. (V)