'Hell, Yeah!': Ex-DOJ Official Makes Short Work Of Trump's Big Defense Claim
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MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and his panel of legal experts went through some of the claims Donald Trump has been making in his defense as he faces a 37-count indictment in the classified documents scandal.
In one clip played by O’Donnell, Trump claimed that charging him under the Espionage Act is “one of the most outrageous and vicious legal theories ever put in an American court of law. There’s never been anything like this.”
“Has there ever been anything like this?” O’Donnell asked former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal.
“Hell yeah,” Katyal replied without hesitation, then immediately cited the case of Robert Birchum, who was recently sentenced for keeping classified documents at his home.
“Notably, unlike Donald Trump, Mr. Birchum ― who was a highly decorated Air Force officer ― expressed remorse for what he did, he took full responsibility. And Lawrence, yet, he still got three years in prison just last month.”
Katyal also cited several other examples of people getting prison time for the same charges that Trump is now facing.
Trump, he suggested, “should just look at the language of the Espionage Act ― it describes him to a T.”
Watch as the panel also dissects some of Trump’s other claims clip below:
