'Enormous hammer': Ex-prosecutor reveals how Jack Smith could nail Trump in criminal case

Donald Trump may be in more hot water in his criminal case for alleged election subversion than was previously believed, a former federal prosecutor said.

Trump has been successful at dodging criminal liability in a number of cases brought against him, but Special Counsel Jack Smith recently revealed a filing with even more evidence explaining how prosecutors say Trump and his co-conspirators conducted a conspiracy to overturn the former president's loss in 2020. Trump also filed an "aggressive" brief to Judge Chutkan that threatens the case itself, according to a legal analyst.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner appeared with commentator Brian Tyler Cohen on Friday to explain what Kirschner says is an "enormous hammer" Smith can now wield against the ex-president now that the new evidence has been unsealed and made available to the public.

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Kirschner specifically highlighted the legal concept of "co-conspirator liability," which according to the U.S. Courts for the Ninth Circuit means a "defendant could be held liable for a substantive offense committed by a co-conspirator as long as the offense occurred within the course of the conspiracy," could directly disadvantage Trump now that alleged co-conspirators' words and actions have been laid out by the government.

In the first 85 pages of the recently unsealed brief, Kirschner says, there is a narrative including conduct by Trump's "dirty lawyers."

"Every single word out of the mouth of every single co-conspirator... [is] attributable as incriminating evidence to Donald Trump," Kirschner says before defining co-conspirator liability.

"The law has developed over time such that co-conspirator liability means every single person who is a member of the conspiracy is guilty of the crimes committed by every other member of the conspiracy, whether they personally participated in the crime or not," Kirschner said. "You can't defeat co-conspirator liability... It's a bedrock principle of the law."

Kirschner goes on to flag specific examples from the filing, including an emailed conversation in which a Trump attorney reportedly talks about the false elector scheme.

Kirschner noted that this principle could also make it more likely that any small player involved in the conspiracy could turn on the ex-president. He added, "Co-conspirator liability is an enormous hammer wielded by prosecutors because you're in for a conspiratorial penny, you're in for a conspiratorial pound."

Watch the full interview here.