Trump appears ‘smack dab in the middle of a conspiracy to defraud the United States’: Ex-prosecutor on MSNBC
President Donald Trump could have even more legal liability if his longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, is correct in his claims that Donald Trump, Jr. informed his father before a meeting with Russian operatives promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Both Trumps have denied the veracity of Cohen's allegations.
"This to the point of whether or not there was any coordination with his father before, during, after that meeting, which was only one floor away in Trump Tower," MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell explained on Friday. "We know from other records that the president, then-candidate Donald Trump, was there in the Trump Tower office that day, and then had even more opportunity to speak to his son because they went off-site to a campaign luncheon."
"So what would be the significance if these reports are true about what Michael Cohen is supposedly asserting?" Mitchell asked former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York Mimi Rocah.
"Andrea, it's incredibly significant," Rocah answered. "I mean, this is huge."
"If the government can prove that Donald Trump knew about the meeting with the Russians ahead of time -- knew at least generally the purpose of the meeting -- and gave it the go-ahead, he is smack dab in the middle of a conspiracy to defraud the United States by the process of fair elections with the Russians," the MSNBC legal analyst explained.
"What the government needs is a witness, a witness is evidence," Rocah continued. "And the way that Michael Cohen becomes a witness is to become a signed-up cooperator with the government."
"No one should underestimate how big this is, if it's true, in terms of putting Trump in the middle of a criminal conspiracy," she concluded.
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