‘Most significant criminal exposure Trump has ever faced’: expert breaks down the legal liabilities
Donald Trump is likely to lose his secret court battle to prevent a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. from obtaining evidence related to the unsuccessful effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, according to an analysis that aired Friday on CNN.
CNN reported, "Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys are fighting a secret court battle to block a federal grand jury from gathering information from an expanding circle of close Trump aides about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, people briefed on the matter told CNN. The high-stakes legal dispute – which included the appearance of three attorneys representing Trump at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse on Thursday afternoon – is the most aggressive step taken by the former President to assert executive and attorney-client privileges in order to prevent some witnesses from sharing information in the criminal investigation events surrounding January 6, 2021."
For analysis, CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed Ambassador Norm Eisen, who served as White House ethics czar in the Obama administration and currently chairs the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"Wolf, it's a continuation of Donald Trump's use of executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, to try to block investigations," Eisen said.
"It failed in Trump vs. Thompson with the Jan. 6 committee, it just failed in the 11th Circuit with the classified documents, DOJ's investigation turned back on," he explained. "He's got a very steep hill to climb."
"As you know, these are the issues I was responsible for when I worked in the Obama White House," he noted. "Executive privilege, since U.S. vs. Nixon, must yield when there are compelling criminal circumstances. Here a judge has already found likely criminality as to Trump, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of Congress. So he's going to have a tough, tough path in this instance."
Eisen explained, "it's very significant to protect our country and, of course, because this may be the most serious criminal exposure Donald Trump has ever faced."
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