NBC host Chuck Todd accused Donald Trump's attorney, Jim Trusty, of "misrepresenting the law" after the former president suggested he should be paid $18 million to return classified documents belonging to the U.S. government.
On Sunday, Todd asked Trusty why Trump had told Fox News host Sean Hannity that "they ended up paying Nixon $18 million" for presidential records.
"He seems to, and you seem to be, I think, maybe unintentionally misrepresenting the law when you talk about Nixon," Todd said, noting that the Presidential Records Act was passed after President Richard Nixon left office.
"The law was effective with the Reagan presidency in 1981," the host told Trusty. "Does the former, does Donald Trump think he should get paid? Is that what's going on here? Because Nixon got paid $18 million."
"That's a cheap shot," Trusty snapped.
"He keeps bringing up this Nixon thing," Todd pointed out. "What other reasons is he bringing it up?"
Trusty argued that Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were better examples. 1
"They acknowledged that they had classified documents, probably to the tune of thousands," he said. "Never any criminal tools, never any criminal referrals. So look, this has a rotten underpinning in terms of bureaucrats being politicized, followed up by an all too eager DOJ to criminalize something that's not a crime."
"That was the point of the president's comments," Trusty insisted.
Watch the video below from NBC.
1 Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did not, in fact, have classified documents.
