Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that former President Donald Trump was being treated “ultra-fair” by our justice system.
Weissmann said, “You know, when I look at this, it’s not a reflection of Donald Trump. We know what he is. He has engaged in this behavior. It will increasingly be over the top as he gets closer and closer. This is about our institutions about how they are incapable of handling these situation. In normal cases, when I have handled organized crime cases, violent criminals, there’s a process where they have held to standards. If they were to engage in this context, yes, they’re giving one bite at the apple, one warning, and then there are consequences, which can include and on which does include jail. Just think about not that long ago, Paul Manafort, he committed obstruction of justice by coaching two witnesses to lie, and he was remanded by the federal judge who oversaw his case.”
He continued, “I really think this is a situation with so many people bending over backwards, given the former president of the benefit of doubt over and over again. I think that is the road to hell. By not having held thinks trials already, by not investigating in a timely way, by not holding him to the exact same standard we’re both violating or oaths of office, what it means to have a justice system that holds everyone to the same standard. I know a lot of times it’s born out of the trying to be ultra-fair, but it’s leading to beyond two systems of justice, it’s a unique system of justice for Donald Trump, which is not constant with what it means to have a democracy. We may find ourselves without a democracy if we don’t wise up and hold him to the same standard of everyone else that has ever been treated in all of the criminal cases I’ve done in my entire life.”
Weissmann added, “The idea he can say he’s being treated unfairly is so laughable, because I think anybody on this panel would say he’s been treated with kid gloves by the system.”
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