Former President Donald Trump has been indicted and faces dozens of years behind bars, but MSNBC host Rachel Maddow openly speculated that the Biden Justice Department might consider dropping charges if the leading GOP candidate agrees to drop out of the race.
Some would describe that line of thinking as ‘giving away the game.’
Trump was charged Thursday with willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements, and a conspiracy to obstruct justice, following an investigation into alleged improper handling of classified documents.
He has indicated he will plead not guilty to the charges after calling the indictment “election interference at the highest level.”
In an interview with Lawrence O’Donnell, Maddow seemed to speculate along similar lines, suggesting the Justice Department might consider a deal that would involve Trump leaving the 2024 race for President.
Rachel Maddow Admitting What This Trump Indictment Is Really About pic.twitter.com/WFxxvyWnzu
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) June 9, 2023
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Rachel Maddow on Trump Indictment – Could DOJ Drop Charges If Trump Drops Out?
Rachel Maddow begins the segment by comparing the Trump indictment to that of Richard Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, who was indicted for tax evasion and forced to resign prior to Watergate.
Agnew pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of tax evasion.
“You have to wonder if the Justice Department is considering whether there is some political solution to this criminal problem,” Maddow said.
“Whether part of the issue here is not just that Trump has committed crimes, but that Trump has committed crimes and plans on being back in the White House. Do they consider, as part of a potential plea offer, something that would … proscribe him from running for office again?”
The very phrase ‘political solution to this criminal problem’ is all you need to know about how serious anybody is taking the charges against Trump.
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He faces seven charges that carry a maximum 75-year prison sentence if convicted on all counts … but maybe they should consider letting bygones be bygones so long as he doesn’t run against our boss, the President of the United States.
What seemed like obvious election interference before would be even more blatant should such a deal come to fruition. What kind of sick banana republic are we living in right now?
Maddow says the quiet part out loud—this is the ENTIRE point of the exercise—to get Trump to quit —to stop Trump from returning to the White House-to get Trump to just go away…. https://t.co/3RNeDyoeVK pic.twitter.com/D8kh0z9vy0
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) June 9, 2023
RELATED: Mark Levin Goes Nuclear After Trump Is Indicted: THIS Is The Insurrection!
O’Donnell Worries Such a Deal Would Make it Seem Trump Was Right
For his part, O’Donnell didn’t exactly fight back against Rachel Maddow’s idea that the DOJ could drop the charges in exchange for Trump exiting the race.
There was no reprimand along the lines of, ‘No, Rachel, these are very serious crimes that can’t simply be washed away to the political benefit of our muse, President Biden.’
Instead, he suggested Trump’s team would have to present the option first so it didn’t look like the DOJ had political rewards on the mind.
“I would imagine if anything like that happened that it would have to come from the defense side of the negotiation,” O’Donnell concluded. “That the Trump team would say, ‘Oh, by the way, and with this, we will also, you know, drop out of the race for president.’”
Lol. @maddow says the quiet part out loud. https://t.co/EPw0YXEffq
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) June 9, 2023
“Otherwise, it would put the Justice Department in this position that Donald Trump claims they’re in,” O’Donnell said adding that the Republican candidate claims prosecutors are “simply trying to stop him from becoming president again, and that’s the only reason they’re doing this.”
They’re really not even trying to hide the fascism any longer, are they?
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