Normally CEOs don't go to jail — here's why a former FBI official says Trump Organization 'people will go to prison'
Former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi, former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal and Donald Trump biographer Tim O'Brien all spoke to the new revelation that the New York attorney general joined the Manhattan D.A.'s case against the former president.
"I think Trump has misjudged his exposure here," said Figliuzzi. "There's hubris here and there's just bad gambling luck. So, with folks like [Paul] Manafort, [Roger] Stone, he believed that he could control them. That they were disloyal enough that he didn't trust them and needed to dangle the pardons. That he needed the pardons and commutations. I think he misjudged [CFO Allen] Weisselberg and others. I think he thought he was Teflon, this wouldn't happen. He was emboldened by [special counsel Robert] Mueller not going after his finances and I think he's misplayed this."
He went on to say that two things struck him when the announcement was made yesterday. The first was what is different when a civil case is moved to the level that it becomes criminal.
"When you're talking about the former president of the United States, it means it takes something more than the bare minimum threshold of reasonable suspicion that a crime occurred," he explained of the high demand for evidence and specifics. "I don't think she would make this announcement lightly or merely reasonable suspicion. I think she has strong evidence, specific facts that she is very confident in."
His second point was that coordination with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. means the two are essentially investigating the same people using the same informants. So it makes sense to come together and offer the same deals to those informants.
"You need to coordinate the intelligence, and if the same people are exposed you have to figure out who's going after Trump personally. Who's going after the organization?" he continued. "Make no mistake. Because it's an organizational prosecution doesn't mean human beings in that organization can't go to prison as part of that case."
Figliuzzi went on to explain why Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. should all be getting their own lawyers at this point.
"In fact, as part of most white-collar crime cases against corporations, there's a heated discussion about whether or not someone deserved to go to prison and what do they look at for that? Are there things in place to have prevented this? Is this a one-off? Is there more systemic fraud? Is there evidence of intent? My message to the Trump family, who are officers, if you don't have separate lawyers representing you on the organization case, do not trust that one organization attorney, who represents the organization's interests, to represent your interest. It is time to separately lawyer up and you may have different interests than a brother, sister or father."
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace compared it to the Enron prosecutions, saying that in that case, it seemed like some people went to jail. She asked if it was a similar case.
Figliuzzi agreed, saying that in the majority of big white-collar cases, there's a fine and most CEOs and officers don't go to jail. In cases with long-time, extensive, intentional fraud, "you're going to see people go to prison."
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