Trump’s Own Words ‘Prove’ He Is Guilty of Wire Fraud: Kirschner


Former President Donald Trump‘s own words are evidence that he is guilty of wire fraud, according to legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.

Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC‘s Deadline: White House that Trump had made a “marquee incriminating statement” that “proves” he solicited campaign contributions based on 2020 presidential election fraud claims that he knew were false.

The legal analyst cited testimony from former Department of Justice (DOJ) official Richard Donoghue, who told the House January 6 committee last year that Trump asked officials to “just say” the election was “corrupt” and “leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen” after being informed that no significant fraud had occurred.

Kirschner said that the former president’s purported statement was proof that he was only interested in “retaining the power of the presidency by hook or by crook and defrauding people out of their money” by fundraising off of the false fraud claims.

Trump’s Own Words ‘Prove’ He is Guilty
Former President Donald Trump on Monday disembarks Trump Force One at Aberdeen airport on the northeast coast of Scotland at the start of his first visit to the country since losing the presidency. Legal analyst Glenn Kirshner on Monday said Trump’s own comments are evidence that he is guilty of wire fraud.
Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty

“What Donald Trump said and what Richard Donoghue pretty much testified to, word for word, is actually an incriminating twofer,” said Kirschner. “And that is because he said, I don’t care if there was no fraud, just say there was and leave the rest to me and my Republican allies in Congress.”

“It proves Donald Trump did not care about the true state of affairs, whether there was or was not election fraud,” he continued. “That marquee, directly incriminating statement, I think, makes for a powerful case of both wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

Kirschner was commenting on a Monday report from The New York Times that says Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal investigation of the former president was ramping up efforts to determine whether Trump violated wire fraud statutes by using baseless claims of massive fraud for fundraising.

Last month, Kirschner commented on a Washington Post article that first reported that Smith was investigating Trump on potential charges of wire fraud. Kirschner said that the purported wire fraud investigation showed that Smith was “going after [Trump] hard” and “not at all shy about expanding his criminal investigation.”

“Friends, the federal crime of wire fraud ain’t no small potatoes,” Kirschner said during an episode of his Justice Matters podcast. “If you send emails with false information about rigged elections, in order to dupe people out of their money, you have committed the 20-year federal offense of wire fraud.”

Newsweek has reached out via email to the office of Trump for comment.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung previously told Newsweek that Kirschner was “a notorious trafficker of wild conspiracy theories and dubious legal analysis” and had “been shunned by the legal community at large.”

More than one former Trump DOJ official told the former president that the fraud claims were false in the aftermath of President Joe Biden‘s 2020 victory. Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general who has called the fraud claims “bulls***,” resigned after refusing to push the false narrative.





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