A former federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia listed all of the crimes Donald Trump, Jr. may be facing for the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives.
Attorney Seth B. Waxman joined MSNBC's Kasie Hunt on Monday to analyze the changing legal liability facing the president's namesake son.
"What are the laws around this?" Hunt asked the partner at Dickinson Wright.
"There are several," Waxman noted. "We've talked about a little bit this idea of foreign campaign contributions, where if a foreign national gives anything of value to someone, a campaign, that can be a crime. On the other side if the person accepts or even solicits that kind of contribution, that can be a crime."
"So Don, Jr, when he says he 'loves it' with regards to the dirt on Hillary, that alone can be a crime, full stop," he explained.
"There are other crimes, bribery, which is a quid pro quo quo," he said. "If anything of value was given in exchange for the promise of future government action like reducing sanctions, that can be bribery."
"And bribery can be the basis for several other charges, such as Honest Services Fraud," he said.
"Or the most powerful weapon federal prosecutors have, RICO," he added. "So there's a whole series of charges out there."
"Translate RICO for our viewers," Hunt requested.
"Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations," he replied. "So that's what's used to go after the mob."
"I'm speculating a bit, but bribery is a predicate offense to RICO," he noted.
"If you get into that framework, you're looking at 15, 20 and 30 years offenses -- as opposed to campaign finance law which is 1 or 2 or 5-year offenses and those aren't the offenses to flip senior members of a conspiracy, especially if it's the son or son-in-law," he concluded.
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