Lawrence: Fmr. Trump chief of staff says he's 'scared sh-tless'

we have breaking news at this hour from The Washington Post under the headline Trump rejected lawyers efforts to avoid classified documents indictment The Washington Post is reporting that one of Donald Trump's lawyers tried to settle the document's case in the weeks after the FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump's Florida residence and seized 100 documents marked classified and thousands of other government documents this is exactly what most lawyers expected serious lawyers to try to do on Donald Trump's behalf try to settle the case then without going to a trial The Washington Post is reporting tonight the attorney Christopher Kai's wanted to quietly approach Justice to see if he could negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges hoping attorney general Merrick Garland and the department would want an exit ramp to avoid Prosecuting a former president but Trump was not interested after listening to other lawyers who urged more pugilistic approach Trump time and again rejected the advice from lawyers and advisors who urged him to cooperate and instead took the advice of Tom fitton the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch and a range of others who told him he could legally keep the documents and should fight the justice department advisers said Trump would often cite Fittin to others and fitton told some of Trump's lawyers that Trump could keep the documents even as they disagreed the advisor said fitton who appeared before the grand jury and was questioned about his role in both the Mar-A-Lago documents case and the investigation into the January 6 2021 attack on the U.S Capitol acknowledged he gave the advice to Trump but declined to discuss the details of their conversations multiple Witnesses said they were asked about fitting in front of a grand jury and the role he played in Trump's decisions Trump never believed that his home would be searched and thought that he would be able to keep the documents to advisors sent the day after Donald Trump was arrested by federal agents and arraigned on a 37 count indictment that includes violations of the Espionage Act people who served at very close range with Donald Trump at the highest level of his administration did not rush to his defense the former Marine General who was the longest serving Chief of Staff in the Trump White House John Kelly told the Washington Post he scared shitless for the first time in his life it looks like he's being held accountable up until this point in his life it's like I'm not going to pay you take me to court he's never been held accountable before Donald Trump's vice president who was urged to commit crimes by Donald Trump in his attempt to overturn the presidential election said this I had the chance to review the indictment over the weekend and this indictment contains its serious charges and I cannot defend what is alleged I I will tell you as as a not only as a former vice president but also my son's a marine my son-in-law is a Navy Lieutenant I made the the very prospect that what is alleged took place creating an opportunity where highly sensitive classified material could have fallen into the wrong hands even inadvertently that that jeopardizes our national security it puts at risk the men and women of our armed forces and as I said I can't defend what is alleged cannot defend what is alleged and earlier this evening to Trump voters watching Fox Donald Trump's last Senate confirmed attorney general said this about some of the nonsense that the audience has been hearing on Fox I think the position is being taken that this is really just a document dispute over custody of documents and the president has good arguments as to why he should have kept them I think the arguments are farcical and will be shown as such but I also think more importantly there's sidelight and they're taking they're distracting from the real issue the president is being prosecuted here because it's an obstruction case and he's in trouble for what he did after he got the subpoena if he thought he had arguments that these were his documents there are many things he could have done to raise those arguments he could have moved to quash The subpoena he could have given the documents to the government and ensued to bring him back and made his legal arguments as to why there really his uh but he didn't do that what did he do he engaged in outrageous Act of obstruction and deception that obstructed that subpoena and that is wrong that's a law that I mean that's a violation of law that's a serious problem forehand supporters of Donald Trump are insisting that he is being treated unfairly in this case which is true if by unfairly they mean that he is being treated unlike any other defendant in such a situation has ever been treated here is a sample of that unfair treatment from the transcript of yesterday's arraignment the judge asked is the prosecution asking for former president Trump to surrender his passport Mr harbach know your honor is the prosecution requesting any international travel limits on former president Trump no euron is the prosecution asking for any limits on domestic travel for former president Trump know your honor so one of the standard conditions of our bond is to is no travel outside the southern district of Florida unless pre-approved by a court what is your position on that the prosecutor said that it's not necessary your honor judge said fair enough is it though is it fair enough anyone else would have to surrender their passport that would be fair anyone else would be barred from traveling outside Southern Florida that would be fair for anyone else owning a private plane would be the very definition of Flight Risk Magistrate Judge John Goodman ordered one special condition the judge said so that will be a special condition no communication with fact Witnesses no communication about the case with fact Witnesses who are on a list provided by the government that is of course obviously an unenforceable condition there will be no way of knowing if Donald Trump is talking about the case and the evidence in the case with any of the witnesses who are still friendly with Donald Trump like his co-defendant Walt NoDa who the night before their first appearance in court together sat at Donald Trump's dinner table as an honored guest a table that included according to the Washington Post Trump's political advisors his lawyer Christopher keys not his lawyer Stanley Woodward and right-wing meteor figure Tom fitton in that same report The Washington Post raises what they call a key question a key question hovering over the case now is whether naoto will cooperate with prosecutors against Trump in hopes of a lesser sentence put in Watergate terms the question is will Walton lauta turn out to be G Gordon lyddie or E Howard hunt the drama of the choices faced by those two masterminds of the Watergate burglary is framed Anew in HBO's brilliant new limited series White House plumbers with Justin Thoreau playing Gordon Liddy who decided to never flip and serve the longest sentence of anyone involved and with Woody Harrelson playing e Howard hunt who eventually flipped to reduce his prison sentence while that is life was made or destroyed by the decision made by President Rutherford B Hayes in 1880 to use navy stewards as waiters in the White House when Walt NADA joined the Navy in 2001 he could never have expected to get the statistically most unlikely assignment the Navy has which is service in the white house he quickly became Donald Trump's favorite White House waiter he's just a service-oriented guy said Ty Cobb a former Trump White House lawyer who knew NADA in his capacity as Trump's Ballet Now to served them during long working lunches in the residence he's not partisan he's a real genuine person and somebody who never ever expected in his lifetime to be the valet to the president of the United States that was the highest honor of his life Cobb added I'd be shocked if Trump said 10 words a day to him two of the words not in Trump's vocabulary thank you Donald Trump is saying thank you to Walton out and now by letting him sit at the dinner table that he used to serve but for Walt NADA the price of sitting at Donald Trump's dinner table includes sitting at the defense table in the case of the United States of America versus Donald J Trump and walten Nota will Walt now to lose his place at both of those tables by flipping and testifying against Donald Trump as the Washington Post puts it in hopes of a lesser sentence the answer to that as of tonight is a resounding no because it will be impossible to get a sentence lower than zero and that is the sentence that is virtually guaranteed to Walt NADA and Donald Trump with Donald Trump's favorite judge in the world presiding over the trial there are no mandatory minimum sentences for any of the crimes charged in the indictment that means that the judge does not have to impose any sentence after a guilty verdict if the judge allows the case to go as far as being decided by the jury judge Aileen Mercedes Canon is a republican cuban-american member of the Federalist Society Who as a judge has handled only four criminal cases with a total of 14 days of trial time in all of those cases combined most members of the news media covering significant trials have spent far more time in trial courtrooms than judge Cannon has she demonstrated when she interfered in this investigation illegitimately according to the Circuit Court of Appeals a contempt for the very notion of Donald Trump being investigated for his possession of classified documents and other government documents she was reversed twice in very harsh terms by the Circuit Court of Appeals saying that her rulings were quote a radical reordering of our case law that would quote violate Bedrock separation of powers limitations and carve out an unprecedented exception in our law for former presidents there was no serious legal observer in America who was not shocked by judge Cannon's rulings when she interfered in the Justice Department's investigation of this case a federal trial court judge has the power during the trial to Simply find the defendants not guilty without even sending the case to the jury and if judge Cannon does that finds Donald Trump and Walton Auto not guilty on her own there is no appeal of that decision special prosecutor Jack Smith can appeal her pre-trial decisions but the most significant power she has shall not be appealed in any way and if judge Cannon does allow these defendants to be found guilty by a jury and she gives them no sentence whatsoever the prosecutors cannot appeal a sentence that they consider too lenient right now tonight all the lawyers involved on both sides of this case have to be working on the basic assumption that there is no real risk of any real sentence for these defendants and that means there is zero pressure and zero reason for Walton Auto to flip and Donald Trump either explicitly or implicitly has surely made Walton out of feel as if he will be set for life if he doesn't flip or at least set for the rest of 77 year old Donald Trump's life because there's no guarantee that Trump kids will keep paying you when they get their hands on Daddy's Money [Music] foreign

Channel: MSNBC

Views: 3,206,990

Keywords: Lawrence O'Donnell

Id: 6JqeoJF3WNw

Length: 13min 36sec (816 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023