MSNBC legal analyst Elie Mystal explained that of all the legal jeopardy facing Donald Trump and his children, the New York investigation into his manipulation of property values is probably the most serious, probably even more serious than the election fraud investigation in Georgia.
Yes, Donald Trump will almost certainly invoke the Fifth Amendment but that will probably not help him or his children.
MYSTAL: Tish James is playing this game at a high level. She's not subpoenaing Ivanka and Don Jr. because she doesn't know what is going on. She's got evidence, she's got documents. She understands the scheme. She is inviting them in to talk to help themselves. If they don't want to avail themselves of that help, that is on them.
It's like if I say, “Who drew crayon on my television?” I know the answer, I'm just trying to give the urchins I live with the opportunity to lessen their punishment.
Mystal went on to note that the coverage is ignoring how the case is highlighting what an “off-the-charts” awful and “reptilian” father Trump is. “If this was my family and my kids were subpoenaed to talk to this woman, I'd be begging the court, ‘No, let me take the weight, let me take all the responsibility, don't go after my kids.’ What kind of father is this that he's putting his kids in this situation?”
Host Tiffany Cross pointed out that we’ve long known what kind of father Trump is, “especially the way that he's spoken about Ivanka over the years.”
Then Cross played a clip reminding us how much Donald Trump once thought that taking the “horrible, horrible” Fifth Amendment was a sure sign of guilt — when Hillary Clinton staffers did it.
Sadly, James does not have “the power that Merrick Garland seems unwilling to use right now,” Mystal said, meaning that she probably won’t question any of the Trumps about January 6th. But that keeps her focused on the potential financial crimes, which seem pretty major. “I think that as long as she stays on that laser-focused track, we could get results,” Mystal added. He also pointed out that these investigations into the Trump Organization should have happened a long time ago.
Just think, if New York had looked into the Trumps’ finances when it should have – and it’s not like nobody might have suspected something fishy – the country might have been spared the grifter’s move into the White House.
And while we’re at it, the New York Times is still giving Trump the kid-glove treatment.
MYSTAL: If you look at what they did to Hillary Clinton and her alleged email scandal, versus where they buried the story of Trump eating classified documents - that shows you how much bias that we have in the media for Trump.
In terms of punishment, I think one of the problems is that the Presidential Records Act has no teeth, but that destroying of classified documents, that's what we got Oliver North on. So we should maximally prosecute that. And yes, it could be used to prevent him from running for office again. And again, this happened in Iran-Contra, it can happen again if we have prosecutors willing to go to the mattresses to get this guy any way they can.
So maybe one or more wrongdoings will finally stick to the Teflon Don and his slippery family.
