Judge's 'very declarative' statement about Trump's criminality is 'a big deal': NYT's Haberman

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Monday said that Judge David Carter of the Central District of California had crossed a real threshold when he declared it "more likely than not" that former President Donald Trump had committed felonies.

During a CNN interview, host Jake Tapper asked Haberman for her take on the judge's ruling, which argued that Trump very likely knew his scheme to overturn the 2020 election was illegal.

"It's a big deal, and it isn't quite what it looks like," she said. "It's not an indictment. This is not coming from the Justice Department, but this is an external person, a judge, somebody making a very declarative statement about what this meant. And so to the extent we are seeing the Justice Department facing pressure from outside points, I do think that it's significant."

Haberman went on to say that we still don't know whether this will lead to a criminal indictment of Trump, but she said it looks like a real step in that direction.

"This is the clearest anyone has been, anyone in a real position of such seniority and authority, to say this was wrong," she said. "There's a key quote in there about it being 'a coup in search of a legal argument.' That's a pretty damning statement."

RELATED: 'A coup in search of a legal theory': Here are Judge Carter's most damning indictments of Trump and Eastman

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