Why Trump should be concerned about newly unsealed FBI notes

Newly released documents reveal A potentially explosive new development in Donald Trump’s classified documents case. According to notes from a November 2022 interview with the FBI, the former president’s quote people End Quote, offered a pardon to his Co defendant, Walt Nauta in the event that Nauta was charged with lying to federal investigators. The notes say this quote Naoto was told by POTUS people that his investigation was not going anywhere, that it was politically motivated and Much Ado about nothing. Naoto was also told that even if he gets charged with lying to the FBI, F POTUS former POTUS will pardon him in 2024. Now to was charged last June with lying to the FBI and obstructing special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. Our panel is back. Gene, how significant is this? Because it it basically looks like they were telling him, hey, you should lie because we’ll protect you. Absolutely. When I prosecuted cases back in the day, the the substantive charges were important. I used to love witness tampering. I loved obstruction of justice because it I did. I loved it because it goes to their state of mind and their guilty conscience. That is an example of a state of mind and guilty conscience. Now here’s the problem. Whose people is it? Is it, is it Guido, who’s talking to Bubba, who’s talking to Donald Trump? Is there, you know, 3 layers of hearsay or is it Donald Trump saying to this person, go tell nada, I got a pardon in my pocket for you. We don’t know that, right? It seems difficult to feels like a song, a pardon in my pocket for you. I mean, Jonah. It does seem to suggest that they knew just how bad this was though. Oh for sure, I think so. I, I, I think that’s right. It’s also worth pointing out the like in the original constitutional debates about the pardon power and or the impeachment, it was giving pardons to basically cronies and hench men for nefarious reasons. Was cited as one of the causes, one of the justifications for impeachment, even if it’s not a crime. And remember those debates about how if it’s not a crime, you can’t impeach someone for it. This was an example of a non crime that was considered impeachable at the time. And it just sort of gets lost in the miasma. Yeah, Jeff. I mean, what does it signal to you about their view of how damaging this case potentially was politically for Trump? Look, I think they knew that. And there are few people who were more sort of in the orbit more than than a waltz. I mean, he was at the president’s side constantly and he’s one of the examples of someone who’s is still beholden to the former president for legal advice. They’re paying his cost of his legal bills, I believe still and look promising something that they can’t deliver. They don’t know that he’s going to be reelected at this point. So but it clearly they were trying to, he knows more than most people know because he was with him in Mar a Lago in Bedminster, et cetera. So I think that’s very revealing. Gene, how does when you have cases like this, I mean, now to sort of relative power to Trump is, is pretty low, right? Even compared, he’s a minnow. And so how does that kind of impact what happens with with defendants? Excellent question. When you have multiple defendants at a trial and I have, you always have the big, big hona, if you will, Mr. Trump. But if you have a minnow or somebody that’s lower level, when the jury goes into that deliberation room, at the end of the day, they’re going to say, you know what, I think he’s guilty of sin. But we’re going to cut this minnow a break. But it’s bad news for Mr. Trump because they will compromise to let Naughty go or have a hung jury, but they will focus like a laser beam on Mr. Trump at the documents trial.