MSNBC’s McQuade: Biden Special Counsel Appointment Means Trump Charges ‘More Likely’

MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade said Thursday on “Chris Jansing Reports” that she believed former President Donald Trump is more likely to get criminally charged because Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert Hur as special counsel to oversee the investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.

McQuade said, “They both begin with the idea that classified information is supposed to be handled in appropriate ways. There are rules about those things, and failure to do so can violate a number of different statutes. So I imagine in those ways, they are very similar. There will be examination as to whether any of those laws were violated.”

She continued, “Additional crimes might be presented in the case of Donald Trump just because of the search warrant that we saw before that had additional probable cause for obstruction of justice. That makes it a more complicated crime and a more serious crime potentially. The obstruction of justice allegation was based on the failure of Trump and his team to turn over documents when they received the grand jury subpoena, forcing the government to get a search warrant to go retrieve what turned out to be more than 20 boxes remaining after they had already assured the government that all of the documents had been turned over. So it is a very different scenario from what we have in this case.”

She added, “I see Robert Hur’s review as potentially small unless it is involved in something else, whereas I see Jack Smith’s investigation as something larger. I would also say this, Chris. I think that the appointment of Robert Hur suggests to me that Jack Smith is serious.”

McQuade concluded, “I think you need to appoint Robert Hur to show that you are treating these two men equally. It makes me feel that it is more likely charges are going to come against Donald Trump than if no special counsel had been appointed here.”

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