Former prosecutor trashes top Trump 'judicial' adviser on documents scandal
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace began her Thursday show with a takedown of conservative activist Tom Fitton, who is president of the far-right group Judicial Watch who spoke to the Justice Department this week.
Wallace linked Fitton to not only the conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election beginning as early as the summer prior as well as the Trump documents scandal.
"So, Bill Barr's conduct, his appearance on media outlets, Fitton's e-mails, all the groundwork that played the summer before the general election takes place and voting in America commences is part of what you would imagine the special counsel's evidence-gathering around intent and intent to perpetrate a fraud on the American people to be," Wallace said in her intro. "What might -- and we'll take the two probes because we don't know why Mr. Fitton was there, but we'll take the two probes separately. What might the significance be if he's there answering questions about Jan. 6th?"
Washington Post reporter Jackie Alemany explained that Fitton was never someone addressed by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.
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"But he is someone who is extremely influential," she explained, citing his work with Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has her own far-right political operation.
"Fitton and others were already sort of exploring some of these legal maneuvers to overturn the results of the election or at least delegitimize Joe Biden," she continued. "In addition, Tom Fitton had and has the former president's ear. He's someone who Trump was listening to, was potentially serving as a liaison to these conservative groups to people like Ginni Thomas and others who were simultaneously engaging in efforts to get the states to overturn the results of the election by signing on to the fake scheme of electors plan being implemented."
But it was former prosecutor and Los Angeles Times legal analyst Harry Litman who agreed that Fitton's life is about using the courts to "gum up" politics.
"This guy is quite a character, Nicolle," said Litman. "One of the most prolific tweeters in the country in the whole eight months leading up to the election propounding the big lie and other disinformation, and as you say, when all the grown-ups scurry and he has to rely on the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, he has also, is Fitton in the room. As best as I can tell, I don't think this guy is even a lawyer. He's only a conservative activist, and at this point, he was saying all kinds of — 'just declare victory, et cetera.'"
Litman said that Fiton also figures into the Mar-a-Lago documents scandal that could end Trump in court with federal charges.
"He's the main guy telling Trump — just say you can declassify anything, et cetera," Litman claimed. "And the most intriguing possibility here, raw speculation, but what's been missing to date from the big Trump potential prosecutions are cooperating witnesses. He's someone who potentially could be low enough that he has something to gain but high enough that he can give good information as to Trump on both but especially Mar-a-Lago because he seems to have had conversations with [Trump] where -- where implicitly at least Trump would have been knowing that he's not supposed to keep these documents."
At the end of the segment, Litman went on to say that Fitton doesn't appear to have had much "direct communication with Trump" around the Jan. 6 stuff the way that he does around the stolen White House documents. He was with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon in the Jan. 6 coordination the legal expert said.
It's possible, he continued, to say that Fitton had already spoken to DOJ, but special counsel Jack Smith is likely looking for the "nut he can crack."
"I don't have anything concrete but it fits the overall timeline of what Smith is doing is that they're really putting the screws to him, telling him they're going to charge him, and he is discussing the possibility of cooperating. That would be the most exciting [reason] that he's there now," said Litman.
He noted that the Mar-a-Lago issue is more serious here because Fitton is the person that Trump was talking to when he was ignoring everyone else. "And he's giving unbelievably bankrupt and false legal advice. So, he's very strong on the obstruction and intent that Trump is violating known legal orders."
See the full exchange below or at the link here.
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