CNBC and CNN salivated at a new 2021 tape recording showing that 76-year-old former President Donald Trump admittted he had a classified document about possible U.S. attack on Iran after leaving the White House. Liberal TV networks have worked feverishly since Trump left the White House to see him convicted and thrown in jail over a variety of alleged crimes, including planning and orchestrating Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots and mishandling classified documents removed from the White House and taken to his Mar-a-Lago resort. When the largely Democrat House Jan. 6 House Select Committee recommended charges Jan. 6 to Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland, they were uncertain of the outcome. Over the last six months, Democrats have focused more on Trump’s illegal handling of classified docs as more likely charges than the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. MSNBC legal experts think charges are imminent.
Speaking to MSNBC’s “The Beat” former civil prosecutor Maya Wiley said the new tape recording of Trump admitting to possessing a classified doc about a possible Pentagon attack on Iran was “explosive,” “the last nail in a coffin that already has a whole lot of nails in it,” Wiley said. Former federal prosecutor Paul Butler said the new recording was “devastating for Donald Trump,” all preaching to the anti-Trump choir at MSNBC and CNN, but unsure whether it would carry that much weight with Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland. Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who worked on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, said it could be “game over” for Trump. Weissmann worked for 22-months on Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin, concluding March 23, 2019 Final Report that there were no such ties. Yet Weissmann now hazards his opinions on whether Trump should be indicted by Smith and Garland.
Whether Weissmann, who worked on Mueller’s investigation, is retired or not, hazarding his opinion on a future Trump indictment could not be more inappropriate. Weissmann’s willingness to give his opinion on an ongoing investigation shows, for all to see, his extreme prejudice against Trump. Weissmann, while working on the Mueller investigation, was accused of leaking to the New York Times and Washington Post about Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow. Weissmann’s contacts with former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), led Schiff to believe Mueller had a slam dunk case against Trump. When the Mueller investigation fizzled, concluding Trump had no ties to the Kremlin, Schiff insisted he had concrete proof that Trump colluded with Moscow to win the 2016 election. When asked to produce his foolproof evidence, Schiff never did
In their lust to charge-and-convict Trump, MSNBC or CNN never ask Weissmann about the Mueller investigation that cleared Trump of any wrongdoing when it came to Russia. Weissmann shows so much extreme prejudice against Trump he’s not credible. “There is no way that he will not be charged,” Weissmann told MSNBC. Weissman said that classified docs found a Biden residence or former Vice President Mike Pence are different because they both returned the docs to the National Archives when asked. “There will be an indictment and its is hard to see how given all the evidence that we’ve been talking about that there will not b e a conviction here. I mean, this is a tape recording,” Weissmann said, seconding guess a judge and jury. Weissmann’s statements prove that under his direction on Mueller investigation, he looked for anyway possible to charge Trump with Russian collusion.
Independent credentialed newd organizations are not supposed hold political biases, if for no other reason, to allow facts in various news stories to speak for themselves. When it comes to government agencies, like the Department of Justice, CIA, FBI or National Security Agency [NSA], the same expectation of objectivity applies. Yet when it came to the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation against Trump, former FBI Director James Comey held personal and departmental bias against Trump. Published reports of former FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his lover FBI Atty. Lisa Page conspiring to sabotage Trump’s 2016 was well-known. U.S. press and government agencies should not bend the rules to accommodate political preferences or prejudice. FBI, CIA or NSA officials should not single out political figures for investigations and potential prosecution like they did with Trump.
Former federal prosecutor Eliot Williams told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that “no such thing as a smoking gun in the real world,” meaning that nay piece of evidence, videotape or not, can be impeached in court. Williams said a video of Trump admitting to knowing about a classified document could be “incredibly valuable evidence because it speaks to the intent, it speaks to knowledge and it speaks to what he knew that he had. So its is, as far as evidence goes, very, very powerful,” Williams said. No matter how powerful the evidence, a good defense attorney can find exculpatory ways to invalidate what looks like a smoking gun. Whether or not Smith or Garland find the evidence compelling or not, they could both decide it’s not in the country’s best interests to indict a former president, current presidential candidate. Anti-Trump TV networks must refrain from exposing extreme prejudice.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
