| | | As president, Trump was largely shielded from legal consequence. But no longer.
David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami, said that, until now, Trump’s legal problems have largely been relegated to “money things,” with various lawsuits seeking payouts. But he described what Trump is facing now, particularly in Georgia and Washington, as “more significant, because with those comes the potential exposure to criminal punishment.”
“If they can prove intention, knowledge, involvement in an ongoing conspiracy,” he said, ”that’s potential criminal exposure, something he’s never faced before.”
But those who have worked with Trump said he and those around him are likely to continue to brush off the probes as nothing more than politically motivated “witch hunts” aimed at damaging his future political prospects. After spending so many years jumping from one crisis to the next, from the Russia investigation to inquiries about everything from his Washington hotel lease to payoffs to a former porn star, being under investigation in TrumpWorld is the norm.
For many in his circle, “It’s a badge of honor to be subpoenaed,” said Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary who quit on Jan. 6 and has since penned an anti-Trump book.
“It’s easy to say ‘It’s just another witch hunt’ because that’s what we said about everything,” she said. “People are doubling down. That’s what we do in TrumpWorld, we double down. And you just claim it’s a witch hunt, you claim it’s political theater. And that’s how you get your supporters to continue to donate money and to continue to believe they’re on the good side.”
Indeed, on Saturday night, Trump railed against the investigators and insisted, “There’s never been a witch hunt or a fishing expedition like this.”
“This has been going on as long as you’ve known me. It will continue as long as I’m leading in the polls like I am,” he said, adding: “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you.”
And, after being accused of inciting the Capitol riot, he issued a request. “If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere.”
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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report. |
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