Ex-prosecutor fears Trump supporters will turn to violence after president says grand jury is attack on 'us'
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner sounded the alarm that more violence from Donald Trump's supporters might be forthcoming after the recent statement from the ex-president.
Speaking to MSNBC's Joy Reid, former Trump biographer Tony Schwartz said that he's not sure Trump is all that concerned about being indicted. But Kirschner warned that he should be.
"Trump has been -- has been under this kind of pressure for so long," Schwartz said. "It is taking this particular form now, potentially a criminal form. I underline potentially. There's no guarantee that this grand jury will indict him. This is a man who has never been criminally indicted even though he has been committing crimes since he was at least a teenager. The idea that we are suddenly going to get him or that he is in some sort of terror because the feds are coming after him, I'm not sure I really buy that, Joy. I think, yeah, he is concerned. But this is par for the course for him. He loves the fact that we're on here talking about him."
"I agree that the DA impaneling this extraordinary grand jury, which will sit for six months as opposed to four weeks, doesn't guarantee Trump will be indicted," Kirschner said. "It's clearly the last stop on the road to an indictment. And every data point we have seen from the district attorney's office trends toward indictment, whether it was the two-year battle to get his tax returns and his financials, two trips to the Supreme Court, they finally got ahold of it. They spent considerable New York taxpayer dollars hiring an expensive forensic accounting firm to help them unravel those documents. They then brought on board an expert mob former prosecutor as part of the team. Now they have impaneled a special grand jury to hear all the testimony of the witnesses and lock them in."
He explained that they are creating a blueprint for the criminal trial. Once the testimony is under oath it can be used as evidence against Trump.
"If those witnesses get scared or they conveniently forget stuff that otherwise would have incriminated Donald Trump, guess what, their grand jury testimony can be used to convict Donald Trump. Every single data point is trending toward indictment and this grand jury being impaneled is the last stop."
In Trump's statement to his supporters, he alleged that this was an attack, not just on him, but on "us," meaning his supporters. Reid recalled that it's clear Trump supporters aren't above committing acts of violence to save their guy.
"Yeah, I think there is a threat of violence," said Kirschner. "In the statement that Donald Trump made -- we have seen this movie before. What did he put out a statement saying in response to [D.A. Cy] Vance's announcement that there is a special grand jury being impaneled? He said, this is an affront not to me, to my 75 million followers, supporters, voters. What is he doing? He is trying to pull them in his criminal orbit. He is sending a signal, if I get indicted, you are figuratively getting indicted. What are you going to do about that? We have seen this movie before. He did it on January 6th when he lost the election."
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