Trump’s co-defendants scrambling like 'lobsters in a barrel' to save themselves: former US attorney

Bank

Former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Eugene Rossi told CNN anchor John Berman on Tuesday that ex-President Donald Trump's co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' racketeering case are clamoring like "lobsters in a barrel" to get themselves out of trouble.

Trump and eighteen of his associates were indicted in August for allegedly conspiring to steal Georgia's sixteen Electoral College votes after Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. Many of the individuals Willis charged along with Trump are lawyers like Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani — from whom Trump sought legal counsel in the waning weeks of his term.

"Some of these defendants are starting to, if not turn on each other, at least reference each other in court filings in ways that aren't necessarily advantageous to all. When you have that many defendants, what is the risk to start seeing them turn?" Berman asked Rossi.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

"Well, think of lobsters in a barrel. They're all trying to climb out and they're all pulling each other down," Rossi explained.

"I just finished a six-week trial — February, March — of an Oath Keeper. Knock on wood, he got probation by Judge [Amit] Mehta, a great judge," Rossi recalled. "But we had one key cooperator — and every case of this magnitude hinges on one, two, or three key cooperators — the Proud Boys case that hinged on one main cooperator, maybe a few others. So what's gonna happen among these nineteen is they're gonna go, you're gonna face the prisoner's dilemma: 'Do I take a bullet for the team or do I think about me? Do I think about me and me alone and what my future holds?' And you are gonna see probably two or three people cooperating before that trial starts, and they're gonna be very important witnesses. They could decide the case for or against Donald Trump, Giuliani, and the others."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

CNN 09 05 2023 10 12 44www.youtube.com

READ MORE: 'Every defendant for himself': Trump’s onetime allies are turning on him

{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}
@2025 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. - "Poynter" fonts provided by fontsempire.com.