Watch: Trump excuses compared to Mafia movie bosses in staggering MSNBC supercut
June 12, 2023
In a discussion between MSNBC's Ari Melber and Chris Hayes on Monday night, the hosts argued that Donald Trump's future once again hinges on one of his former lawyers. First, it was Michael Cohen. But now it's Evan Corcoran, whose notes and documentation about Trump have been allowed in court.
Melber and Hayes posted a graphic showing that one of Trump's former lawyers was convicted, another spoke out, 12 have been subpoenaed and four have resigned — so far.
Hayes explained that Corcoran was supposed to conduct a search of the Trump properties for the missing documents, and had no idea that Trump was working with his valet, Walt Nauta, to move boxes around, hide them in a shower, take some of them to New Jersey, etc.
"The point is they're not hiding them from the FBI," said Hayes. "They're not hiding them from the Department of Justice. They're hiding them from his own attorney, who's going to be the guy who doesn't sue. When Evan Corcoran does the search and puts together the 38 documents he finds, and Donald Trump says, 'How was it? Good, bad, anything? How was it?' ...having known that he got rid of a lot of stuff. He then tells Corcoran famously to pluck, right? The first thing Corcoran does is call another lawyer to say, 'Will you come and sign?' That, to me, is an unbelievable set of facts. That Corcoran's first instinct — he's done the thing. He hasn't been told explicitly by Donald Trump or Walt Nauta; we are breaking the law."
Melber thinks that Corcoran was thinking, "What will the DOJ say I should have known at this moment?" And he's not dumb enough to claim that "it was on the level."
"I, right now, have a problem," Hayes said, thinking of what Corcoran would think. "My client is obviously a liar and is, I think, I don't know, but I suspect engaged in obstruction of justice. I'm going to be asked to sign a document and represent the government to the best of my knowledge, this is all on the up and up, but I know it's not. What's my way out?"
That's why he calls Christina Bobb to sign the letter claiming that there are no documents.
The hosts showed clips of mafia movies and how similar Trump's comments are to them. The first was "Gotti," with his lawyer claiming that his client was breaking up a fight, nothing more. It's followed by a clip of Trump saying on July 25, 2018, "What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
A scene from "The Sopranos," in which Tony asks if there will be a problem, it will be a bad one, is followed by Trump "I think if it happened, I think you'd have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we've never seen before," Trump said in Sept. 2022 about if he's indicted.
Another scene from "Goodfellas" has James Conway saying, "Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut." It's followed by a clip of Trump being interviewed by the "Fox & Friends" saying that "flipping" like Cohen did, should be illegal.
"It's so clear that this is the mental model from what he wants from the lawyers is essentially a mob lawyer," said Hayes. He explained that it's a lot like what happened with the former FBI Director James Comey, who is more a lawyer than he ever was an FBI agent. When faced off against Trump trying to shake him down, he knows the only option he has are notes after the fact. The written record would be what could ultimately save him. Corcoran is doing the same in this case.
Hayes went on to explain that Trump has a strange belief that lawyers have a magical power to do whatever they want without having to face off against the government. It's like a D&D character that has a kind of shield of protection.
"They have a shield over them, and the magic power is the government can't get them because they have privilege," Hayes described. "You see, when he's talking to Corcoran about the Hillary Clinton lawyer, he thinks in his head, it's the wizardry, why can't you do this magical thing and magically protect me from it? You can do it. You can dispose of evidence. You're a lawyer. You have been entrusted with your magic power. I can't do it, but why can't you do it? That's the way he conceives with the lawyers, and routinely, he has pushed the boundaries of what is, certainly ethical, but even more so legal to do so for lawyers."
See the conversation below or at the link here.
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