Jonathan Turley, law professor at George Washington University, said during a panel discussion this week that the federal indictment against former President Donald Trump is “quite strong” and that Trump will have to “run the table” or else he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Turley — who has taken the side of Trump in the past, including during his first impeachment — made the remarks during a discussion with attorney and former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume.
“The problem is that he’s got to run the table, he’s 76 years old, [and] all the government has to do is stick the landing on one count and he could have a terminal sentence,” Turkey said. “You’re talking about crimes that have a 10- or 20-year period, as a maximum. The evidence here is quite strong.”
Turley said that he believes that once a trial jury is able to hear Trump’s defense team that some of the charges might get tossed, but it’s still a problem for the former president because he faces 37 counts.
“But some of this evidence is coming from his former counsel,” he said. “And these are very damaging statements that have been made against him. It may be hard to move those. The fact is, both things may be true. Yes, the Department of Justice may have been out to get him, but he made it easy. If you look at what is being described in this indictment, [when] confronted with someone that he felt was trying to get him, he couldn’t have made it more easy for them to do so.”
Gowdy, a former prosecutor, was asked about the possibility that some of the evidence may be ruled inadmissible and hence never seen by the jury. Gowdy responded by suggesting that the most damning piece of evidence against Trump comes from Trump’s “own mouth.”
“Well, the most damning piece of evidence to me is the audio tape. I mean, you want to talk about consciousness of guilt,” he said. “You want to talk about knowledge and intent. I mean, those are the darlings of a prosecutor’s nursery. And that came from President Trump’s own mouth.”
Hume said that in order for Trump to win 2024, should he become the party’s nominee, that he will have to convince people who did not vote for him in 2020 that they should vote for him now. Hume said that it was “hard” seeing Trump being able to do that.
Law professor Jonathan Turley, who has defended former President Donald Trump in the past, on the federal indictment facing the president: “This evidence here is quite strong.” pic.twitter.com/jMwVbAUNS0
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 11, 2023