Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained to MSNBC on Monday that former President Donald Trump is in an awkward place with his legal problems where he's quickly running out of options.
"When you have [Adam] Kinzinger saying, [Rep. Liz] Cheney saying they are looking at crimes, what crimes are possible?" asked Alecia Manendez.
Katyal explained that the major crime is the 18 US Code 1505, obstructing an official proceeding.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to learn Donald Trump today is, to use the technical legal term, freaking out," he mocked. "He is freaking out because of the revelations that you just mentioned a moment ago. Also because there was a decision ten days ago by the federal court in Washington, D.C. by a Trump appointee and what the judge said is that one of the insurrectionists was guilty of violating this statute obstruction of an official proceeding, the count of votes on Jan. 6."
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He noted that the judge also explained that the insurrectionist clearly intended to try and stop the count and that it doesn't require a lawyer proving the person did or didn't intend violence. With or without violence, the person acted with corrupt intent to stop the counting of votes. That, he explained, is the manual for prosecuting Trump.
"That is what he is worried about and why you see all of these moves by Trump and his allies today," Katyal said.
Trump as a normal citizen doesn't have any authority, which is another problem for him. His normal playbook doesn't work if he's not the one in control.
"Our entire constitutional system is set up to basically trust presidents and give them immense powers even to delay litigation or court cases against themselves because we don't want random people to tie up the president and stop the nation's business from being done," Katyal said. "That is why our system was written as it is. It wasn't written for someone like Donald Trump who abuses every lever in the system to delay, obstruct, and prevent things. That is one thing when you're president. You got that suite of tools available. He doesn't have them anymore."
Watch below:
Donald Trump is 'freaking out' -- and with good reason due to legalitieswww.youtube.com
