The lawyer hired by the White House to represent Donald Trump during the Mueller 2016 election-interference investigation thinks Trump faces serious prison time in the ongoing 2020 election-interference case.
“You pointed out 55 years is the exposure. He’s not going to get 55 years, but he’ll get six to nine on this,” former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb told CNN host Erin Burnett Tuesday night.
There are fresh charges in the 2020 election case being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who on Tuesday filed an updated indictment charging Trump with election interference for his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, with the new indictment rewritten to address the Trump Court’s made-up new rule granting presidents nearly limitless immunity from prosecution for “official acts.”
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Trump, last year, pleaded not guilty in the case, which alleges that he led a “criminal scheme” to overturn the 2020 presidential election to remain in power.
The Trump Court ruled last month that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for what it termed “official acts,” and sent the case back to a federal district court to sort out which charges should be allowed to stand.
Cobb, analyzing the indictment, called it a “very forceful document.”
“It’s pared down, every sentence is, you know, crisply worded. It’s a tight narrative. You can’t read this and not understand the crimes that Trump actually committed,” said Cobb, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Reagan administration, and served as a special counsel to the Trump White House for 10 months in 2017-2018.
Forecasting what happens next, Cobb said “there will be a lot of delaying tactics by his lawyers” which is par for the course in terms of typical Trump legal strategy.
“They’ve already said it’s the same indictment. Clearly, it’s not. They’ve already said that this will be dismissed, should be dismissed, should be dismissed immediately. It won’t be dismissed immediately,” Cobb said.
“I think the people that view this as a some retreat by Smith read this completely wrong,” Cobb said. “This is what happens in the ordinary course. If the Supreme Court takes an action that eliminates one approach that was previously available, the prudent thing to do is to change course.
“The facts haven’t changed, and as you pointed out, the charges haven’t changed. They’re the same charges, and they’re easily proved,” Cobb said.