Former South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy made some eyebrow-raising comments about former President Donald Trump after he was indicted by Biden’s U.S. Department of Justice.
During a segment on his Fox News show “Sunday Night in America,” Gowdy and two former prosecutors discussed the charges against Trump. However, it quickly took a turn when Gowdy and his guests seemingly took turns throwing veiled shots at Trump.
Gowdy turned to Elliot Felig, a former Manhattan prosecutor, and asked: “Looks like the former Vice President Mike Pence might be a star witness for the prosecution, whether he wants to be or not. What do you make of that?”
“Yeah, that was a huge part of the indictment that if I’m the prosecutor on this case, I would lean heavily into this moment where Donald Trump allegedly said to Mike Pence, the problem is you were ‘too honest,’” Felig said.
“If I’m the prosecutor, I would hit that hard in my summation, because logically speaking, when would you say to someone, you’re too honest to do this unless you knew deep down the thing you were asking them to do was in fact, dishonest? Now, look, Donald Trump can go out at rallies and say Mike Pence is a RINO or a communist or, you know, knock yourself out, say that all day long. But good luck to the trial lawyer who has to stand up in front of a jury and say, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Mike Pence is not someone who takes the oath, to tell the truth seriously,” Felig added.
Godwy then turned to former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman and asked, “What makes this criminal fraud as opposed to just the normal political fraud?”
Tolman retorted that he was worried that the indictment’s emphasis on criminalizing the legal counsel that Trump received from his attorneys and the lack of a clear argument for criminal intent raised concerns.
“All right, Eliot, Brett raises a good point. I mean, bad facts make for a tough law. I mean, that’s an old adage from our days in law school. And these are, I don’t say they’re bad facts, certainly interesting facts. You have fake electors, you have a pressure campaign on the vice president. You have calls to state election officials and you have January 6th — what happened at the Capitol. Eliot, Is it possible that something can be an awful, awful day for the country but still not meets the elements, as Brett noted, of a criminal statute?” Gowdy followed up.
“Sure. That certainly can be the case. The problem with the free speech argument is, look, Donald Trump wouldn’t be under indictment if he had 50 or 100 or a thousand rallies where he simply said falsely, by the way, that the election was stolen or that there was widespread fraud, even though there’s no evidence of that, he wouldn’t be under indictment if he had just done that,” Felig replied.
Felig took another shot at Trump, adding: “Where they crossed the line was when they had these fake electors gather in state capitols after the secretaries of state and the governors had signed certifications that Biden had won the state.”
“If I can make an analogy, Trey, I can come on your show and say I’m the real Trey Gowdy. I can run around the streets of New York or South Carolina and say I’m the real Trey Gowdy. But if I go home and I print out a fake driver’s license or a fake birth certificate, and I walk into your bank and I say, I’m Trey Gowdy and I’m here to take out all my money, then I’ve crossed the line into fraud, into forgery, into maybe attempted grand larceny. I don’t think there was a good faith basis for electors to sign fake certificates or false certificates saying that they were duly elected and duly certified. And I don’t think there’s a good faith basis for saying to Mike Pence, you should take those certificates rather than the real ones,” he said.
WATCH:
https://youtu.be/9zEvsfxUp8k
Gowdy made headlines recently when he discussed Trump being arraigned in Miami in the case brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Biden’s DOJ.
Host Shannon Bream asked: “You heard the soundbite from the president there yesterday saying that Jack Smith is deranged? He mentioned his wife as well. Trey, if he were your client, what would you say to him about making statements now that the indictment is out there?”
Gowdy wasted little time throwing several shots at Trump.
“I would resign, because you cannot control this client. That is the thing with President Trump. There is a kernel of truth. He has been treated differently and worse than others. That is crystal clear. But to say that the prosecutor is deranged, I am pretty sure that’s like a medical diagnosis that he is not competent to give. I just — I think that he undercuts his legitimate arguments when he argues by hyperbole,” Gowdy said.
WATCH:
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly showed classified documents to several people who did not have the proper security clearances on at least two separate occasions. The DOJ alleges that both instances took place at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Details regarding one of the alleged instances were leaked to CNN.
The network reported on June 2 that federal prosecutors had “obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.”
The charges “include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations,” ABC News reported.
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