Mulvaney’s ‘clownshow’ could end with him ‘wearing handcuffs’ for bribery and extortion: Florida prosecutor

The Florida state attorney with authority over President Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort warned that the White House chief of staff could be arrested for a crime he publicly admitted.

Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County and a former Florida state senator, agreed with a former prosecutor on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Mick Mulvaney had revealed criminal wrongdoing by admitting the White House withheld military aid to pressure Ukraine to help the president's re-election campaign.

"We've been being looking at criminality here for a while," said former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, "and I think Mulvaney put the final nail in the coffin yesterday, and here's why it's important."

She said enough evidence had already been shown to support impeachment, but Vance said that Trump associates should start getting worried about their own legal exposure on criminal charges.

"But the clear case, the case that everyone has always agreed would support impeachment, would be if the president engaged in outright criminality," Vance said, "and here we see bribery and campaign finance violations."

Aronberg agreed, and said Mulvaney in particular should be worried about getting arrested.

"Yesterday's press conference was a clown show," he said. "I mean, Mulvaney went rogue, and it's not uncommon when a conspiracy falls apart for the individual conspirators to start pointing the finger at each other."

"They're panicking, that's what Mulvaney did yesterday," Aronberg continued. "He panicked and he pointed the finger at President Trump as an attempt to save his own hide. You know, he was saying, 'Yeah, this all happened, it happens all the time.'"

"It's essentially a quid pro quo," he added. "The problem with that is that it does seal President Trump's fate for impeachment, and it could lead to Mulvaney wearing a pair of handcuffs in the future for campaign finance violations, possible bribery, extortion."

That wouldn't be the first time senior White House staffers had been charged with crimes committed while serving a president.

"Remember, President Nixon's chief of staff served prison time for Watergate," Aronberg said, "and that could ultimately be Mulvaney's fate. I think at that point jury will have to decide which of Mulvaney's two statements yesterday was more credible -- the one he did voluntarily, spontaneously on camera, or the carefully written letter that he submitted hours later to sort of walk it back."