'Impossible to see how he survives': Ex-prosecutor says Trump’s legal woes have just begun
With 9 months still to go before the presidential election, former President Donald Trump is already reeling from two massive civil judgments amounting to more than half a billion dollars. But according to a former federal prosecutor, Trump is only just starting to feel the squeeze of the judiciary.
Glenn Kirschner, who is a former assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia, told MSNBC host Katie Phang that despite a $5 million judgment for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, an $83 million judgment for defaming Carroll and roughly $450 million in penalties and interest for defrauding the State of New York, the former president's legal problems will continue to pile up throughout 2024.
"As bad as all of that is Lady Justice is just getting warmed up, because next up for Donald Trump is his first criminal trial, and then he has four criminal trials stacked up," "It is impossible to see how he survives politically, how he survives financially and I think all of this is just Donald Trump slowly being taken out of the system."
READ MORE: Trump owes almost $450M in judgments. Here's how much he'd get for selling his properties
As Kirschner mentioned, the former president will be in Manhattan District Court next month, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted him on 34 felony counts. Trump is accused of falsifying business records in an effort to cover up alleged "hush money" payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) with whom he had an affair while his wife, Melania, was pregnant with his third son, Barron.
That charge is normally a misdemeanor, but Bragg argued that because the $130,000 payment was made while Trump was a candidate for office in an effort to withhold information from voters, it constituted an illegal campaign expenditure. Michael Cohen, who at one point was Trump's longtime confidant and "fixer" and who is testifying as a witness against Trump, said this week that he believes his former boss will be found "guilty on all charges" and that the trial will take less than a month.
Trump's three other criminal trials — two in US District Court and one in Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia — have not yet been formally scheduled. Currently, Trump's federal trials are on hold while he argues that his status as a former president grants him absolute broad immunity from federal charges. Should the Supreme Court rule Trump is not immune from criminal charges, Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's two cases against the former president will move forward.
Meanwhile, Judge Scott McAfee is currently considering defense attorneys' bid to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia trial, alleging she had a conflict of interest with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. McAfee may issue his decision as soon as next week.
READ MORE: Michael Cohen predicts Trump will be found 'guilty on all charges' in Manhattan trial
Watch Kirschner's segment below, or by clicking this link.
