Trump should cop a plea if he were a 'normal defendant' -- but he's 'every lawyer's nightmare': legal analyst
June 20, 2023
Donald Trump's lawyers might want to discuss a plea agreement with the former president after he handed prosecutors "powerful evidence" in an interview on Fox News, but it's far from guaranteed that he would accept the terms.
The former president defended his possession of classified materials and refusal to return them to government custody, and former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that his comments to broadcaster Bret Baier could help prosecutors prove one of the most difficult element in the crimes for which Trump has been indicted.
"I think it's very powerful evidence," McQuade said. "I think the hardest thing to prove in most cases, but especially a case like this, is willfulness. For most crimes, ignorance of the law is no defense, but for certain crimes, including mishandling classified information, there is an additional level of willfulness that is proving what you did was illegal and you knew it was illegal. So that little clip where Donald Trump explains about his understanding that he can no longer declassify documents after he leaves the White House says he understands what it means to handle classified documents. He knows that these are regulated by certain laws. For him to say at trial, if there were to be some defense that the government has failed to prove the requisite intent, they'll play this tape. I think a jury will find beyond a reasonable doubt that he absolutely knew what he was doing was illegal."
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Trump's attorneys can't be happy with his decision to give the interview or the statements he made, and McQuade said they should consider resigning from the case.
"You have a client who won't listen to you, which is every lawyer's nightmare," she said. "Maybe you dissect it for him and explain to him in very gory detail exactly how harmful that was. These are the elements of the offense, this is what government will have to prove at trial. When you say these things, this is evidence that they will play in court. Perhaps that is one way."
"I think any normal defendant, any normal lawyer would absolutely be talking about a plea," McQuade added. "I can't imagine the government is going to agree to the kind of conditions that Donald Trump would want in exchange. They are going to want prison time because anybody else would get prison time or they'll want, which the Justice Department permits, an agreement not to seek higher office. He's just not going to agree to those kinds of things. Maybe as we get closer to the date and he realizes that serious prison time is at stake, those things may look far more attractive than they do now."
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