The man investigating to see whether Donald Trump should be charged criminally for various alleged misdeeds can take away from the E. Jean Carroll verdict that the former president is unable to tell a credible story to a jury, according to a former Mueller prosecutor.
Special counsel Jack Smith learned that Trump, who was ordered to pay $5 million for battery and defamation in the case brought by the writer, and then said he didn't know the plaintiff and attacked the judge on Truth Social, is unlikely to take the stand in his own defense, according to Andrew Weissmann, the former general counsel of the FBI and a previous top prosecutor for Robert Mueller's special counsel office. But Weissmann said the real thing Smith now knows is that Trump is incapable of convincing a jury using his own testimony.
IN OTHER NEWS: George Conway: Trump voters are incapable of admitting they're 'endorsing and enabling a monster'
Appearing on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday, Weissmann was asked by the host what Smith is likely to be thinking when he hears the jury in the case brought against Trump by Carroll found the former president to be lying after a relatively short deliberation.
"He can obviously take from that the juries will do their duty, but that's something Jack Smith knows," Weissmann said. "He has to really think about this in terms of can he prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt, so I don't know that he's going to take too much from this, other than knowing that Donald Trump really cannot tell a credible story."
Weissmann added that Smith will "be hoping, as any former or current prosecutor would, that he would take the stand, because he really cannot help himself by telling a consistent, believable story."
Watch the video below or at the link:
