'That is what happens in Russia': Ex-prosecutor slams Fox News' collusion with Trump team

Former President Donald Trump's team's collaboration with right-wing media outlets is truly "anathema to democracy," warned former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC Monday.

The warning came as the panel, led by anchor Nicolle Wallace, discussed Trump's Manhattan criminal trial opening and National Enquirer's David Pecker's role in the scheme to bury damning information about the former president, which Weissmann argued could prove damning.

"I think there is both the legalities and the image," said Weissmann. "I don't think that he has fought this because he knows the risk to him of facts coming out. He likes to just have spin."

Weissmann argued the trial will bring to the forefront Trump's relationship with right wing media just as he faces a bid to reclaim the White House in 2024.

"There will be so many witnesses putting Donald Trump at ground zero of fake news," Weissmann said. "He likes to use that moniker, but that is what he was doing."

Weissmann then noted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's contention that Michael Cohen paid $50,000 for a poll that would show Trump as a successful businessman.

"That is putting lipstick on a pig plus stuff," Weissmann said. "But then there's denigrating his adversaries. And so this is very much like the precursor to Fox News."

Weissmann recalled his experiences during the Mueller investigation during which former Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort and Fox News Sean Hannity exchanged hundreds of texts.

"Paul Manafort and Sean Hannity text[ed] all of the time about strategy, about what Sean Hannity should say at what point and what Paul Manafort should be doing," Weissmann said.

"With the purpose of influencing the jury?" asked Wallace. "Or with the purpose of getting a pardon from Trump? Or both?"

"Both," answered Weissmann. "But definitely influencing how he is seen, so that it would attack us, and it would be sort of, 'The courts are unfair, it is a witch hunt, I didn't do anything wrong.'"

This tactic backfired when Manafort was jailed on allegations he coached two witnesses, Weissmann noted.

"But before then, this was the whole plan. And it was complicit with a reporter," he said. "The idea [a reporter] would say... 'I need to tell you something, this is what I am doing' with one political candidate, is so anathema to democracy. It is — that is what happens in Russia."

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