Former Fed Prosecutor Convinced that the Criminal Case Against Trump Can Be Proved

The criminal organization known as Trump appears to be unraveling at warp speed in the lead up to the holiday break.

Renato Mariotti‏, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst, after his On Topic podcast wrote, “I left the podcast more convinced that prosecutors could prove this case against Trump than I did going in.”

Here’s his thread breakdown of what he learned by talking to three expert guests (one of whom was one of the multi-authors of the recent George Conway op-ed): 1. John Edwards’ trial is closest parallel to the Trump payoffs 2. Watergate also involved hush money. 3. Trump had election lawyers and compliance staff on his campaign to ask about the hush money, which means prosecutors will ask why he didn’t go to them regarding the hush money.

1/ Is Trump guilty of campaign finance crimes? What defenses does he have? What is the key evidence against him? We discussed these issues with *three* guests on a special episode of my #OnTopic podcast out today. Below I discuss our guests and some of what I learned from them.
1.
2/ @joshgerstein of @Politico covered the John Edwards trial, the closest parallel to the Trump payments. He discussed the evidence at the trial and the legal rulings made by the judge. I learned that payments to Edwards’ paramour continued *after* he dropped out of the race.
3/ @thetrevorpotter is the former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission and former General Counsel of McCain’s presidential campaign. He also wrote a great op-ed recently with @neal_katyal and @gtconway3d. I learned that Watergate also involved hush money payments.
4/ Bob Bauer was former White House Counsel and former General Counsel of Obama’s presidential campaign. I learned about the election lawyers and compliance staff Trump had on his campaign. Why didn’t he go to them about the hush money? That’s a question prosecutors will ask.
5/ This is our longest and most in-depth podcast ever. @PattiVasquezCHI asked your questions, and the goal was to deeply explore criminal charges that implicate Trump. I left the podcast more convinced that prosecutors could prove this case against Trump than I did going in.

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For the past two years many of us have known with a certainty that a grave wrong was being inflicted upon our country, but until now, it wasn’t clear that justice was within reach. Trump is now at the stage of claiming he doesn’t recall what happened, which Jason Easley pointed out follows the pattern of any small-time criminal, “Just like any small-time criminal who gets caught, Trump’s first line of defense is to claim that he was framed, a.k.a. ‘witch hunt,’ and after that fails, he shifts to claiming that he doesn’t remember what happened.”

The holiday present to democracy is the growing sense that a criminal case can and will be made against this president, for any number of infractions- including the Trump campaign, the Trump administration, the Trump Organization, the Trump Transition team (eyeing Vice President Pence here) and the Trump Inaugural Committee, which are all under investigation.

No one is above the law. This is a buttressing foundation of our country and it must and will be respected if our government is to once again operate as the beacon of freedom it used to represent. This is not about partisan politics, but it is about one party’s naked power grab and very troubling repeated dismissal of the law as if it doesn’t apply to them.

It does.

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