Global Courant
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley presented a dire legal situation for former President Donald Trump, who was hit with a 37-count federal indictment, including charges of willful withholding of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making a false statements. The constitutional scholar told “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream that the administration “only needs to land on one point” and that Trump, who turns 77 this week, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
TRUMP STATED ON 37 FEDERAL COUNTS OF SPECIAL ADVISOR JACK SMITH’S INVESTIGATION OF CLASSIFIED RECORDS
JONATHAN TURLEY: The problem is that he has to run the table. He is 76 years old. All the government has to do is lock the overflow to one count and he can receive an unconditional sentence. You are talking about offenses that last a maximum of 10 or 20 years. The evidence here is pretty strong and we haven’t heard their other side. Generally, these indictments are a lot stronger the day they are issued than the next day. So they may be able to overturn some of these issues, but some of this evidence comes from his former counsel. And these are very harmful statements against him. It can be difficult to move those. The fact is that both things can be true. Yes, the Justice Department may have been out to get him, but he made it easy. I mean, when you look at what’s described in this indictment, faced with someone he thought was trying to get a hold of him, he couldn’t have made it easier for them to do so.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith (Fox News screenshot/AP photo)
Turley, who called the allegations “extremely damning” when the indictment was unsealed Friday, echoed the sentiments of Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr.
“If even half of (the indictment) is true, then he’s toast. It’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning,” said Barr, who appeared with Bream.
Trump has claimed he will continue to run for president in 2024 even if convicted.
“This idea of portraying Trump here as a victim — the victim of a witch hunt — is ludicrous. Yes, he has been a victim in the past. Yes, his detractors have obsessively pursued him with false claims, and I’m with his side defending him when he’s a victim, but this is very different. He’s not a victim here,” Barr added. “He was very wrong that he had a right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has.”
The indictment accuses Trump of failing to comply with demands to return classified documents — including plans for a retaliatory strike against an unnamed foreign power — that he had collected at Mar-a-Lago. Other documents include US defense and weapons capabilities and details of the US nuclear program.
“They took one charge and they made it 36 different times. And we have a thug in charge. This is a political hit, Republicans are treated very differently in the Justice Department than Democrats,” Trump said in a speech at the Georgia Republican State Convention.
Anders Hagstrom of Fox News contributed to this report.
This article was written by Fox News contributors.
