A recording of failed former president Donald Trump and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel is exactly the sort of evidence that juries “eat up” and will be a major part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, according to MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
Cevallos was asked about the tape, which came to light last week, by MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire and he noted, “There was a lot of talk this last week about, well, could this expose him to liability in a Michigan court? Maybe. But far more interesting to me, having defended federal criminal cases, I can tell you federal court is not a fun place to be for a criminal defense attorney because the government is very good at what they do.”
“If I’m the government I’m thinking they’re looking at this Michigan evidence as what we call 404-B, but all it is is prior bad act evidence that sometimes under certain circumstances can come into a prosecution,” he continued.
“So if I’m Jack Smith, maybe you look at that Michigan evidence or any evidence from any other state and bring that in as evidence in your D.C. court case and say, ‘Look, this is what he was doing elsewhere, this was not a mistake. This is his modus operandi. This all should come in,’ and it can be devastating evidence,” he added. “I can tell you personally that bad act evidence that somebody did something else bad somewhere else is devastating and juries — they eat it up.”
Trump can try and deny that he played an active role in the plot to steal the last presidential election, but his own words and actions condemn him beyond a reasonable doubt.