Trump's 'disregard for the rule of law' should make judges fear giving him bail: Ex-prosecutor

The criminal charges against former President Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case are expanding, with new indictments issued against himself and two of his longtime aides.

Taken together, said former Robert Mueller investigation prosecutor Andrew Weissman on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," the behavior laid out in these charging documents is so astonishing that judges should be wary of even giving him pretrial release.

"The original indictment has this line in it," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "It begins on page 22. 'While meeting with Trump Attorney One and Trump Attorney Two, on May 23, Trump in sum and substance tells the following story, as memorialized by Trump Attorney One,' who we know is Evan Corcoran. 'He was great, did he a great job. You know what? He said that it was him, that he was the one who deleted all her emails. The 30,000 emails," referring to longstanding conspiracy theories the GOP has about Hillary Clinton's personal email server.

In other words, said Wallace, "Trump's delusions about Hillary Clinton may have put in motion Trump's criminal conduct for which he's been indicted twice. You couldn't make it up in a bad mob movie."

"This is why I'm enamored with you, because that is my favorite paragraph," said Weissman. "It is where he basically turned to Mr. Corcoran and said, why can't you do for me what Hillary got her lawyer to do for her. Which is false. He is like, why can't you get justice for me. You know how they say Earth One and Earth Two? That is Obstruction One. The new indictment has now Obstruction One and Obstruction Two, which is now, let's destroy surveillance tapes. It's really just an incredible scene. And people are always trying to relate it to mob cases, but this is just classic getting the coverup and obstructing."

"You actually have in this indictment discussions of the new defendant, De Oliveira, and Nauta doing a walk talk outside ... because they are clearly concerned about surveillance," said Weissman. "And so they take a walk talk to have a discussion where it is presumably about what is happening and why they can't get rid of the tapes. So this is an incredible crime story with the former president being at the heart of not just taking the documents, but then really engaging in, according to the government, a concerted and repeated pattern of obstruction. And he clearly thinks that this is just a normal course of events."

"I keep repeating this," he added. "That for judges who are overseeing him in terms of his bail conditions, this is the kind of thing that if you are a judge you we are about sorry about a lot because somebody on bail has clearly shown that he has disregard for the rule of law."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Andrew Weissman says judges should be wary of giving Trump bailyoutu.be