Conservative legal expert thinks Trump is 'likely to be charged' with obstruction of justice

In an op-ed published in the National Review this Wednesday, conservative commentator Andrew McCarthy predicts that former President Donald Trump is facing "the very serious prospect of being indicted for obstruction of justice and causing false statements to be made to the government."

McCarthy cites a portion of the recently released affidavit justifying the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago that reads, “There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the PREMISES" for his reasoning.

The filing provides the most detailed account yet of the motivation for the FBI raid this month on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, which was triggered by a review of records he previously surrendered to authorities that contained top secret information.

McCarthy, a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, writes that he thinks the Justice Department has a much stronger obstruction case against Trump than it does for his alleged mishandling of classified information.

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"If there is convincing proof of attempts to conceal or destroy government records, especially highly classified ones, that could change the equation. The Justice Department typically takes very seriously any tampering with witnesses or evidence," McCarthy writes. "I am not saying the former president is guilty of such behavior — and again, we don’t know what the government represented to the court in this regard. But it might well be possible for the Justice Department to prosecute a narrow obstruction case without having to expose classified intelligence and the identities of, at least, most of its informants."

McCarthy goes on to write that he's seen enough proof to think that Trump "is likely to be charged."

"Proving [potential charges against Trump] does not involve navigating the same complications that would arise from trying to prove classified-information offenses," he writes. "Just as critical, they involve conduct that would be very easy for the public to understand, and for which the average person would be indicted."

Trump, who is weighing another White House run in 2024, has accused the Justice Department under Democratic President Joe Biden of conducting a "witch hunt" and said the judge "should never have allowed the break-in of my home."

With additional reporting by AFP