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Donald Trump acted like "the most bumbling mafia don in the history of mafia dons" when he coordinated the obstruction alleged in the confidential documents case, national security attorney Brad Moss said Friday night.
Moss, who said on Thursday that Trump is facing the legal challenge of his life with a legal team that isn't up for the job, was part of a panel discussing the case on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. Moss accused Trump of "showing off documents" and being carless in other ways.
"He's talking about it to a staffer from the political action committee. He's talking about it to the ghost writers of Mark Meadows," Moss said. "He's getting these subpoenas and acting like the most mafia don in the history of mafia dons. He was joking and talking to his lawyer like, can we say that we don't have anything?"
No, Moss said, you either "comply with the subpoena or move to quash it."
"You don't say, how do I lie? That is what is so dangerously concerning with this indictment," he added.
Moss further noted that Trump is presumed innocent, but added that, "if we do get the trial, I don't see much of a reason to believe that they won't be able to make their case."
"I don't see a lot of substantive defense that Donald Trump will make at trial," according to Moss.
The fact that the government was able to pierce the barrier of attorney-client privilege and obtain Donald Trump's lawyer's notes tells you "all you need to know" about the strength of the prosecution's case, a former DOJ official said Friday evening.
In a wide-ranging interview on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, former Acting Solicitor General of the United States Neal Katyal suggested that the prosecution's ability to work within the courts to get access to traditionally barred materials says a lot about how the trial will unfold.
Katyal echoed the sentiments of Andrew Weissman, a veteran federal prosecutor who worked on the special counsel investigation into Trump's ties to Russia, who said earlier on the same panel that the "gold" in the indictment "was revealed by having pierced the attorney-client privilege" and that it "relates to the obstruction charges."
"The basic rule is, attorney-client privilege is sacrosanct until and unless you as the client are trying to solicit a crime that your lawyer is participating in," Weissman said. "So that is not something that is privileged and you obviously need to go to a judge, and the judge has to agree that you established that."
Following Weissman's comments, Katyal elaborated even further, saying the key point was the overriding of attorney-client privilege.
"I think Andrew makes the very important point," Katyal said, adding that "what ultimately was litigated and brought to this very respected judge in Washington, D.C., and then ultimately to our nation's second highest court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, should attorney-client privilege in the current notes be given over to prosecutors?"
He further said the courts "took the radical step, really unique, of saying that this is so serious, this crime, and Trump was using his attorney to try to commit it," that it warranted the departure.
"They basically pierced attorney-client privilege," he added. "That to me, Lawrence, says that all you need to know about this case."
Katyal further noted that, because "this is such a serious matter, and Trump's actions were so lawless," that attorney-client privilege ultimately had to be pierced.
"We have to pierce attorney-client privilege, the most sacred privilege in Anglo Americana law going back centuries upon centuries. That to me is why I listened to Jack Smith's press conference today, and the most important words he said were to all Americans: read the indictment."
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An serial arson has roiled a small Los Angeles community, and authorities are asking for the public’s help identifying the suspect, KTLA reports.
The arsonist torched vehicles, garbage cans, and discarded furniture among other property in the Fairfax District, a community of around 13,000 sandwiched between La Brea and West Hollywood.
The Los Angeles Fire Department is investigating the incidents, which were reported June 7 between 3 and 5:30 a.m., the report said.
A classic Ford pickup truck on South Orange Drive was among the casualties of the arsonist, according to the report.
Evan Townsley, who owned the 1991 Ford F-150 truck, told the television station that he planned to pass it down to his son.
“You guys spent a lot of years back here as children, riding around, bouncing around,” Townsley told the television station.
“We had a lot of good years in this truck.”
Crews were already putting out the fire by the time Townsley noticed his truck was ablaze. He told the television station that crews were already in the area responding to other fires.
“This is gone,” Townsley said. “There’s nothing left, it’s not salvageable. It’s a mess. It’s disgusting, it’s sad and I don’t know why somebody would have it in their heart to do this to somebody else for no reason.”
The arsonist torched another car about a block away, according to the report.
“Wednesday morning, we woke up. My husband came outside to go to work and he said, ‘Oh, our side-view mirror is burnt off. I don’t know what happened,’” the victim, who asked not to be identified, told the television station.
“We couldn’t figure it out. Then I got an alert that the neighbor’s truck was torched, so I put things together and realized that we also were targeted.”
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Arson Investigation Unit at 213-485-6095.
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