Bernie Kerik's lawyer says his testimony could help bring down Trump co-defendant Sidney Powell
Bernie Kerik, the Trump-aligned former New York City police commissioner, could deliver the goods for prosecutors on indicted MAGA lawyer and accused election equipment tamperer Sidney Powell, argued former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore on CNN Monday, who now represents Kerik — provided he gets an immunity deal.
"You say that Bernie Kerik should be granted immunity in exchange for testifying," said anchor Jake Tapper. "Why? What kind of testimony does he have to offer?"
"Sure," said Parlatore. "So, you know, I don't know exactly what they want him to testify about. But the Fulton County District Attorney's office reached out to me and they were demanding that he come down and testify, and I said to them, look, you have publicly identified him as being a co-conspirator, and the Supreme Court case law on this is very clear, when you publicly accuse someone of a crime and then want to compel them to come in and testify, they have a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"No competent criminal lawyer would allow him to answer questions. He's going to plead the Fifth. Are you planning on giving him immunity? And this is one thing that I think has been lost today. We didn't ask for immunity. And Mr. Kerik isn't seeking immunity. If they want him to testify, then the hurdle that they have to overcome so that he won't plead the Fifth is they have to give him immunity."
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
"But you said they publicly identified him, but he was an unnamed co-conspirator, wasn't he?" Tapper pressed him.
"Well, it has been pretty clear who a lot of these co-conspirators are," said Parlatore. "And so when they describe someone like that, Co-Conspirator Number Five is clearly Mr. Kerik, and your network has been on top of that as far as identifying all of these people. So, simply the fact that they didn't say his name in the document doesn't change the fact that they have identified him by his actions as being a member of this conspiracy. And that is something that then implicates the Fifth Amendment."
"So, you say prosecutors have told you, quote, 'If we wanted to indict Mr. Kerik, we would have already done so,'" said Tapper. "And your client is one of 30 unindicted co-conspirators in your case. So it doesn't seem like Fani Willis might suddenly decide to go after your client. It seems like, based on what they told you, that they don't want to indict him. They want him to testify. Does he have — did he witness any criminality? Does he have testimony that is worth his testimony?"
"Well, this — from my understanding, he does not have anything that would indicate criminality by the president, by Rudy Giuliani, or any member of the Giuliani team," said Parlatore. "Would he potentially be helpful in a case against Sidney Powell? I think he would. And I think that is kind of a wrinkle to this case that is difficult on a whole bunch of different levels."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Leave a Comment
Related Post