Charging Trump over Iran war plans adds 'jury appeal' to indictment: ex-prosecutor
A legal expert on Thursday said the latest evidence revealed in the case against Donald Trump over the handling of classified documents figures to add some “jury appeal” to the case against the former president.
Former federal prosecutor Tali Farhadian Weinstein said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” that charging the former president over allegations he showed documents containing war plans against Iran at his Bedminster golf club will allow prosecutors to bring in evidence that is legally damaging and likely to resonate with jurors.
Farhadian Weinstein’s comment followed a question from Wagner over why the special counsel pulled the trigger on charging Trump in connection to Bedminster now after sitting on the evidence for months.
“Why are they charging this now?” Wagner asked.
“So, they've always had the documents, that we know, and remember Alex, they had more than 100 documents and only charged 31, not 32. So they had made an initial decision of which to leave on the cutting-room floor, and I think that there were two categories of things,” Farhadian Weinstein said.
“One were the ones that didn't have ‘jury appeal’ I think, were too boring maybe or technically classified, but didn't really tell you why this was a danger to the country if he was them, and of course, more importantly, in these cases, prosecutors often hold back ones that are so sensitive that they don't want to expose them in an open trial.
“And generally the agencies that have what we call the equities in those documents that did the work in putting together, they get to weigh in and say ‘no, it's not worth it to prosecute based on this one.’ So I think this fell into that pile.”
Farhadian Weinstein suggested that prosecutors were likely able to connect Bedminster to witness testimony or other evidence, and that “once they made that connection, they decided that it was worth including in the indictment.”
Charging Trump in connection to Bedminster serves two purposes, one practical and the other intangible, Farhadian Weinstein said.
“This means that this is going to get in front of the jury, Farhadian Weinstein said.
“Before they would have had to litigate a bit whether evidence of an uncharged crime could come in, because it's generally considered prejudicial to a defendant to say ‘here are other bad things that he did that we're going to tell you about without charging him.’ So there are various rules for the admission of that evidence, and now they don't have to deal with that the short circuit all of that."
“I also think it just has a lot of jury appeal, because it's so serious, a war plan against Iran, and the reasons for keeping it are so unserious," she added.
“I would want to be able to say that sentence to a jury and now they can.”
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