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WATCH: Andrew Weissmann Said Trump Bedminster Audio Is ‘Game Over’ Despite Its Absence From Indictment

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1 year ago

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Former FBI general counsel and lead prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia collusion investigation Andrew Weissmann discussed the leaked audio recording of a conversation between Donald Trump and guests during an appearance on MSNBC Monday. Weissmann said the recording was “game over” for the president while adding that Jack Smith likely has a “backup plan” if the case fails. Less than 24 hours later, CBS News reported that the audio — which had been talked up as “smoking gun” evidence for weeks — is not part of Jack Smith’s 37-count federal indictment.

The leaked audio recording details a conversation between Trump and Bedminster guests in which the former president is accused of “waving around” a classified document that allegedly details a Pentagon plan for an attack on Iran. Trump has denied the accusations, saying that he was instead pointing to news clippings.

Weissmann, who now works as a legal analyst for MSNBC, told host Lawrence O’Donnell that Jack Smith’s office has interviewed everyone present during the meeting. “So they have all of the information about the tape recording, what happened in that room, and everyone’s version of what they recall. So you don’t put something like this in a charging instrument unless you have this completely locked down. That’s just how anybody and certainly how Jack Smith operates,” Weissmann said.

“And so the big picture here, I think, for people is this is not a tape recording where we need to fly spec it. I mean, this is game over if you are following the facts in the law,” he continued.

“And the tape recording is absolutely clear. This is a question now of simply will the government get a trial before the general election, will a jury actually follow the law and the facts? And will the electorate follow the facts and care? That’s really what this is about. It is not about the facts. I mean, you have the former president on tape. And that’s just one piece of evidence,” Weissmann went on to say.

Weissmann went on to speculate that Jack Smith may have a “backup plan” to charge Trump in New Jersey if the current case, which is being tried in a Miami federal court, fails. The former FBI general counsel has hinted at this “backup plan” in the past.

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“When you read the indictment, there’s information about, so much information about Mar-a-Lago, and then you hear about documents being taken to Bedminster and the story stops. There’s sort of this sort of like hole where you sort of wonder why is there no more being told other than two instances of dissemination that occurred at Bedminster,” Weissmann said.

He pointed to the appointment of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee — and speculated that Smith’s team was aware of the fact that she could be overseeing the case, which she now is. “One of the things we posited was that it could lead to separate charges with respect to Bedminster, particularly since they knew that there was a good shot that they would get Judge Cannon in Florida. Were they thinking of this as a backup plan?” Weissmann said.

“The other is that they had venue issues or they thought if things still go well in Florida, this is something that can certainly be brought up at sentencing upon conviction of the former president. In other words, you don’t have to be charged with it in order for a judge to take it into account in sentencing,” he continued.

“But it really is a possibility that it could happen, and it is a possible backup plan if they were to get really slowed down by adverse rulings and delay by Judge Cannon and appeals by Judge Cannon to the Eleventh Circuit, to the Supreme Court, that they have this other respect to what appears quite now to be very, very strong proof of not just retention, but respect to what appears quite now to be very, very strong proof of not just retention, but dissemination in another district.”



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