Trump 'Criming in the Harsh Light of Day,' Kirschner Calls for Indictment

Glenn Kirschner, former federal prosecutor and critic of Donald Trump, recently accused the former president of committing crimes "in the harsh light of day" and reiterated his calls for an indictment.

On Friday, Kirschner, who served as a prosecutor for the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, made an appearance on MSNBC where he discussed the ongoing investigations into Trump with host Joy Reid. In the interview, Reid asked Kirschner if Trump could face similar consequences as his former adviser, Steve Bannon, who on Thursday surrendered himself to New York authorities after being indicted for allegedly defrauding donors to a charity advertised as helping to build the Mexican border wall.

"This might sound surprising coming from a former career prosecutor, sometimes I want to scream, 'Enough with the new investigations,'" Kirschner said. "I mean, yes, we have to investigate all of the crimes of Donald Trump, but this new investigation...is that going to distract us from the investigation into his theft of classified documents?"

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in regard to the documents, including by saying that any classified documents that he took had been declassified. Early last month, FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago resort residence in Florida and seized top secret and other classified documents that the ex-president was holding.

Kirschner continued, citing numerous alleged crimes and misconduct that the ex-president has been accused of in the past, during and after his presidency, including accusations of attempting to commit election fraud in Georgia in the wake of the 2020 election and the extortion of a foreign official, which led to his first impeachment. Kirschner ultimately expressed considerable frustration over Trump's lack of any indictment so far.

"Which seems to have distracted us from his launching [of] an armed insurrection. Which seems to have distracted us from his election fraud in Georgia...and all of that, Joy, certainly distracted us from his bribery and extortion of President [Volodymyr] Zelensky [of Ukraine], his 10 counts of obstruction of justice as documented in the Trump-Russia report, his campaign finance crimes with Michael Cohen in the beginning of it all that he used to steal the presidency. At some point, Joy, can we tell the Department of Justice to just finish what you started? Just return one indictment against somebody who has been criming in the harsh light of day."

Kirschner later reiterated those frustrations during an appearance on host Dean Obeidallah's radio show, a clip from which he shared on Twitter on Saturday.

"How long will we let the #RulingClassCriminals get away with everything?" Kirschner tweeted. "Not class warfare. Just plain old . . . justice. Isn't it time?"

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.

Bannon is accused of defrauding around $15 million from thousands of donors to the "We Build the Wall" fundraising initiative that he helped run. Bannon, who was previously charged in an almost identical federal investigation before being pardoned by Trump, pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of money laundering, two felony counts of conspiracy and one felony count of a scheme to defraud after turning himself in to prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

A federal grand jury is also reportedly looking into Trump's own efforts to fundraise in the wake of his loss in 2020 and his subsequent efforts to undermine the results of the election. The same day that Bannon turned himself in, multiple outlets reported that the grand jury had issued subpoenas aimed at finding out the inner workings of Trump's Save America leadership PAC, including inquiries about its formation, fundraising efforts, and spending, according to CBS News.

It is believed by some that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will hold off on charging the ex-president for anything until after the midterms. This is due to an unofficial tradition in which the department avoids taking such actions during the period of 60 days prior to an election, in an effort to avoid swaying voters.