MSNBC's Joe Scarborough was underwhelmed by the allegations detailed in the Manhattan district attorney's indictment of Donald Trump, but George Conway believes it showed substantial evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
District attorney Alvin Bragg accused the former president of falsifying business records as part of a corrupt scheme to influence the 2016 election by silencing two alleged mistresses, but the "Morning Joe" host said he didn't see strong enough evidence to bump the charges up to felony counts.
"I am a child, a product of the '80s, so I must say, after this indictment came out I thought about two pop cultural moments -- one [was] , 'Where's the beef?'" Scarborough said, quoting the famous tagline from a 1984 ad campaign for Wendy's. "As far as the felony goes, and the second was -- well, the second one was -- see I forgot what it was because the '80s it blurred -- oh, 'Big,' the scene in [the 1988 film] 'Big' -- 'I don't get it.'"
"What's different from what we've been hearing all along, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page said, for this to be a felony Bragg needs a second crime," Scarborough added. "What is it Bragg said, 'I'm not sure what the second crime [is], I don't have to tell you what the second crime is.' I talked to a lot of lawyers yesterday, none of them Republicans, none of them Trump supporters, and all of them [are] saying this is a little thin."
Conway, an attorney married to longtime Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, disagreed.
"They don't have to specify this early in the case which of the three possible theories of liability could bump this up from a misdemeanor to a felony," Conway said. "But secondly, I do think there are interesting factual issues raised by the statement of facts, but I don't see what the big deal is, why people are hand ringing so much about whether or not this is a misdemeanor or felony. There's no question it was a crime under New York state law, there's no question it was, at a minimum, a misdemeanor because he -- these books and records of the Trump Organization were false, and they did not reflect the $130,000 that was paid as hush money to a porn star and the rest of the money was paid to cover up, to Michael Cohen to cover up the fact that they were paying hush money to a porn star."
"So it's illegal in New York state to falsify business records -- it's that simple," Conway added. "If it's a misdemeanor, it's just a misdemeanor, but the fact of the matter there's no dispute he committed a violation of law."
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