‘Morning Joe': Former US Attorney Barbara McQuade Says Trump ‘Essentially Admitted’ to Obstruction in Bret Baier Interview (Video)
The “Morning Joe” hosts and panelists were among those amazed on Tuesday morning by Donald Trump’s latest interview regarding his second indictment, with former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade putting it bluntly: Trump “essentially admitted to obstruction of justice.”
In a new interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump once again claimed that he had every right to keep classified documents at Mar-a-Lago (he didn’t), but that the only reason he didn’t turn them over when asked — though he also attempted to claim he was never asked (he was, repeatedly) — is because he’s been “very busy” and never had a chance to go through the boxes to take out his own personal belongings.
On Tuesday morning, Joe Scarborough marveled that Trump “keeps putting himself one step closer to jail” with every “rambling” interview, before turning to McQuade for her input on the situation.
“You know, any lawyer would tell him to just stop talking about this matter. But he can’t help himself,” McQuade said. “I think he thinks that by getting out there, he can just explain it all away. But this interview did a very good job of pinning him down because I think one of the things he admitted to is that he kept them even after he knew he needed to return them.”
Simplifying that a bit, McQuade said: “He essentially admitted to obstruction of justice.”
When asked whether this interview will be admissible in a courtroom, McQuade noted that not only does she think it’ll be usable, but will “very likely” be a key piece of the prosecution’s case.
“For him to say at trial, if there were to be some defense that the government has failed to prove the requisite intent, they’ll just play this tape,” she said. “And I think a jury will find beyond a reasonable doubt that he absolutely knew what he was doing was illegal.”
You can watch McQuade’s full comments in the video above.
