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Former President Donald Trump will be convicted, backed by a "chorus" of his ex-Republican allies who have cooperated with the Justice Department, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said.
Kirschner's comments follow a report from ABC News on Monday that Trump's former aide, Molly Michael, told investigators leading the federal investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago that the former president would write her to-do lists on the back of visibly classified materials. Michael began working with the former president in 2018, and reportedly quit in 2022 after Trump refused to comply with federal requests to return the sensitive documents in his possession, according to court documents.
Trump faces four criminal indictments, two federal and two state, totaling 91 felony charges, as he bids for reelection to the White House in November 2024. The former president maintains that he is innocent and that prosecutors have incited a "witch hunt" in hopes of upending his presidential campaign.
According to the report, which was not independently verified by Newsweek, Trump told Michael after learning that federal investigators were looking for the boxes of classified materials, "You know nothing about the boxes."
Kirschner, a staunch critic of Trump and former federal prosecutor, discussed ABC News' report on Michael during his latest Justice Matters podcast, characterizing the ex-Trump aide as one of the "many good people who did stand up to Donald Trump's tyranny." Kirschner also noted Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide who testified to the House select committee investigating January 6.
"Here is yet another longtime Trump loyalist who will testify against him at trial," Kirschner said Tuesday. "Someone, Molly Michael, who would not participate in Trump's crimes, who would not spread the word that, 'We have no more boxes,' when she knew he had more boxes. Molly Michael said, 'No, I will not.'"
"And when these trials get underway against Donald Trump and his criminal associates, you are going to see Donald Trump convicted with a chorus of Republican voices," Kirschner added.
The former prosecutor previously predicted that Trump could see a flood of his allies and co-defendants "flipping" against him as the criminal trials proceed, especially in the Georgia racketeering case against the former president and 18 of his allies. One Trump employee, described in the classified documents indictment as a Mar-a-Lago security worker, has reportedly already decided to turn on his former boss.
Michael's testimony is likely to strengthen Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the classified documents found in Trump's possession, which the former president had refused to turn over to federal authorities despite repeated requests and subpoenas. Legal analyst Harry Litman told MSNBC on Tuesday that the former Trump aide will prove to be "a killer witness" during trial.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's press team via email Tuesday night for comment.
About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more