Donald Trump may yet face criminal charges in Arizona related to his alleged involvement in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, despite prosecutors initially urging a grand jury not to indict the former president, according to legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.
In a recent episode of The Legal Breakdown podcast, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst as well as a frequent Trump critic, expressed his dismay at learning that the Arizona grand jury, which recently indicted 18 Trump allies, had shown interest in charging the former president as well.
"A dagger through the heart of this old prosecutor," Kirschner said, describing his reaction upon hearing that the jury wanted to indict Trump, but was advised against it by prosecutors.
The grand jury's deliberations resulted in the indictment of 18 individuals, including prominent Trump associates Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows.
However, according to CBS News, court documents revealed that a prosecutor cautioned the jury against charging Trump, citing concerns about whether sufficient evidence was available and referencing a U.S. Department of Justice policy that limits prosecuting someone for the same crime twice.
Kirschner explained that prosecutors might have held off on indicting Trump to ensure that they had a solid case that could meet the higher burden of proof required at trial.
"For a prosecutor to be comfortable that indicting somebody is the right thing to do, you've made out probable cause," he noted, adding that officials must also have "a reasonable belief" that they can secure a conviction at the much higher bar of beyond reasonable doubt.
Recent developments could change the calculus for Arizona prosecutors, Kirschner suggested. Specifically, Jenna Ellis, a former Trump lawyer who was among those indicted, has agreed to cooperate with Arizona authorities.
"If the prosecutors told the grand jury to hold up... because they thought maybe we wanted to strengthen our case a little bit against Donald Trump, well, they may now have the evidence that they believed they needed," Kirschner said.
Kirschner also emphasized that prosecutors might be waiting for the conviction of the already-indicted alleged fake electors before pursuing charges against Trump.
"All of the prosecutors are playing the long game when it comes to prosecuting Donald Trump and all of the other ruling-class criminals, you know, the upper echelon of this criminal scheme, not just the fake electors who are kind of the flunkies of Donald Trump's criminal attempt to steal the presidential election."
He described that when he was a prosecutor, he would always aggressively pursue cooperating witnesses who had information against "the bigger criminal fish," and would willingly take those witnesses to trial if they refused to cooperate initially.
Newsweek has contacted Trump's representatives for comment via email, outside business hours.
After securing convictions against the witnesses, Kirschner would offer them a chance to reduce their sentences by cooperating, despite their earlier refusal.
This strategy sometimes succeeded in persuading convicted individuals to provide evidence against higher-level criminals in the conspiracy, even after they had already been convicted. He said it could increase pressure on those individuals to testify against Trump, thereby strengthening the case against him.
Arizona, where President Joe Biden defeated Trump by more than 10,000 votes, was among seven states where Republicans are accused of acting as fake electors.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced last year that her office was investigating those who acted as electors and attempted to claim Trump had won the state in 2020.
On December 14, 2020, a group of Republicans met in Phoenix to sign a document falsely declaring themselves the "duly elected and qualified electors" for the state and claiming that Trump was the victor. Another group composed of activists also signed a similar fake declaration, according to court documents.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Flynn Nicholls is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics and society. Originally ... Read more
