"It's not illegal if the president does it"?

[edelsont]

As you may have read, the former president, Donald Trump, has been indicted on charges related to illegal handling of classified documents.  (Or more precisely, secret, or restricted-access documents; some of them are not, technically, "classified.")

What's going to happen?  This is not one question, but many.  I will offer a possible answer to one of them.

Let's narrow the question.  Let's assume that the case will go to trial.  What sort of defense will Trump direct his lawyers to present?  I wouldn't be surprised if he told them to argue as follows:

• Trump won the 2020 election.
• Therefore, Trump remains rightfully the president.
• Therefore, if the indictment says that Trump did something illegal on a particular date, Trump was president on that date.
• So, even if Trump did each act that the indictment says he did, on the date that the indictment says he did it … none of those acts were illegal.  The president can legally do anything he chooses with any government document, "classified" or not.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump insisted that his attorneys argue the case that way, because I think that such an argument would be entirely reasonable … to him.

What do you think?  Might this happen?  What would be the outcome if it did?