'There's so much evidence': ex-prosecutor outlines most straightforward charge to convict Trump
Special Counsel Jack Smith could ultimately bring a fresh round of indictments against former President Donald Trump and his associates, this time in connection with the January 6 investigation.
It remains unclear what those specific charges would be; however, former federal corruption prosecutor and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington chief Noah Bookbinder told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Thursday that one charge in particular would be easy to prove.
"Noah, one of the — if I'm not mistaken, in the draft prosecution memo that you were sort of coauthor on, one of the charges is conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and if I'm not mistaken, that's one of the charges the January 6 Committee looked at," said Hayes. "I have to say, as I look through it again, as a layperson, that jumps out to me. It's like, did you willfully try to defraud the government of the United States of something? And it's like, yeah. the most important thing, who would be the next leader of the country. What do you think about that?"
"I think in a lot of ways, that is the most straightforward of the charges," said Bookbinder. "I think an obstruction charge, obstruct doing a function of United States government ... is also extremely straightforward. But the conspiracy to defraud the United States government is basically saying that you were lying and you were doing it to prevent the government from doing a thing that it was supposed to do. And that's quite clear. There's so much evidence that Donald Trump, particularly through that false electors scheme, but also in trying to intimidate the Department of Justice to essentially lie to put pressure on states, that Donald Trump was taking these positions that he knew were false to try to stop the government from doing what it was supposed to do, which was to count and certify the votes in the election and choose the next president."
"I think that one is pretty straight down the middle, if they are able to get into court and have an impartial jury and put this case in front of them," concluded Bookbinder.
This case would be on top of the obstruction and Espionage Act charges brought against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
Leave a Comment
Related Post