Trump's legal team is really just giving Republicans cover for GOP voters in their states: Ex-federal prosecutor

Former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne explained during an MSNBC discussion Sunday that the only real purpose for President Donald Trump's legal team is to give cover to Republican senators so they can save the president without facing the consequences at the ballot box.

Discussing the week of impeachment trials, Alksne said that any prosecutor would look at the House's case and see reason for confidence. This isn't a normal trial, however, and senators are far from the impartial jury that the judicial system requires.

"The prosecution's case overwhelming," she explained. "I think any prosecutor who put this case in would be pretty confident. But, unfortunately, this isn't really -- this isn't a real kind of trial. So, the question is, what about the defense case? And the defense case is basically, 'We need to give you a couple of things for you to stand up in front of your constituents to say when you refuse to have witnesses, and we acquit the president.' That's basically what's happening."

She said it wasn't a legal case anymore because the legal case is so overwhelming that there is no way the White House could win. The only thing they can try to win is on politics.

"The political case is driven by self-interest, and it doesn't look to me, and I could be wrong, this is more in the political lane, and David Jolly can tell us, but it seems to me they're going to vote no witnesses and we'll get the Merrick Garland treatment, and it will be over."

Her comment was a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refusing to allow former President Barack Obama to appoint a Supreme Court justice when Justice Antonin Scalia died. Garland was a judge that had already been overwhelmingly supported by Republicans, but they refused to vote on him for the High Court, delivering a nominee to Trump when he came into office. Opponents have argued that Neil Gorsuch will forever be an illegitimate justice.

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