March 24, 2019

During a panel discussion on MSNBC's AM Joy on whether or not the Trump children and Trump himself are out of the woods yet due to the lack of indictments from Robert Mueller, former federal prosecutor Paul Butler explained why all of them should still be worried and not doing any victory laps just yet, despite the constant barrage of lies by the right about Trump and his family being exonerated that are flooding the airways right now.

After his fellow former prosecutor Cynthia Alksne discussed the fact that the “kids” may be breathing a sigh of relief for now, until we know whether Mueller farmed out potential prosecutions, and that we won't know until we get the report, Reid asked Butler about the ongoing investigations by the SDNY, the NY Attorney General, the District of Columbia and the Eastern District of VA:

Butler: Not at all. So in the Southern District investigation, the federal prosecutor have already named a criminal conspiracy to violate the federal election laws with Michael Cohen, with Donald Trump Sr., Donald Trump Jr. and Allen Weisselberg.

The only person who is explicitly named in the indictment is Michael Cohen, but it's clear who the others are, and Michael Cohen brought receipts including a check with Donald Trump, Jr.'s name on it.

So Donald Trump Jr. is far out of the woods. You know the other instances with regard to the, to Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Joy, I think there is compelling evidence according to the Democrats who heard his testimony that he lied.

I was a prosecutor, a public corruption prosecutor for the Department of Justice. I could get a jury to convict based on what's in the public record.

If Donald Trump Jr. said the conversations about Trump Tower Moscow ended in January 2016, that's a lie. If Donald Trump Jr. said that the meeting with the Russian lawyer was about adoptions, that's a lie.

I don't know why Mueller didn't bring that charge Joy, but if you deputized me to go back to the Department of Justice, I could prosecute and win that case.

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