The View co-hosts, including ex-Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin, giggled out loud when Sunny Hostin noted ex-President Donald Trump could get 10 years in prison.
Buzz over Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents reached a fever pitch Wednesday after news broke that Trump has been notified by the Justice Department that he is the target of Smith’s criminal investigation.
On Thursday’s edition of ABC’s The View, Farah — a senior White House communications official during the Trump administration — followed up criticism of ex-VP Mike Pence’s CNN town hall with an expression of pure joy about that target letter.
And when Hostin noted that Trump could get a decade in prison for violating the Espionage Act, co-host Ana Navarro and Farah each let out a giggle:
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: He just became indistinguishable from, you know, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott and everyone else in the race. So I was bummed by that. I am not bummed by the fact that Donald Trump received a target letter from the Department of Justice, though! So I think that we could get an indictment in the next couple of days.SUNNY HOSTIN: I really enjoyed the target letter myself as well.(CHEERS)And I did. Because Whoopi, I think you remember I said last year, what is taking them so long? This is a paper trail case.WHOOPI GOLDBERG: But what did we decide
that they needed to do?SUNNY HOSTIN: They wanted to have everything, every thing that you can get when you are a potential criminal defendant is a target letter. Because we used to call it bug, be, or turn. Either your phone is bugged or you can turn and cooperate, or baby you are it. And that’s the target letter. And the target letter basically says you are the target of a Department of Justice investigation. And I will tell you that federal prosecutors have a 99.6% conviction rate.WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Don’t you mean 99.7?SUNNY HOSTIN: I said I said I had a 97%.(APPLAUSE).But but it’s 99.6 and so less than I think only 2% of federal criminal defendants go to trial and most who do are found guilty. And so this is a paper case. It’s about classified documents, as Alyssa said, we’re talking about the Espionage Act, that’s ten years in prison!ANA NAVARRO: HEE-HEE!ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: (GIGGLES)WHOOPI GOLDBERG: What was that? Ana what was? What do you think? What’s happened? What’s what you’re seeing?ANA NAVARRO: Well, one of the things that’s got me a little bit nervous, frankly, is for, first of all, the idea of Trump getting indicted by the DOJ makes me downright gleeful! Right? It’s like, oh, happy Pride Month. But apparentlyit may happen in Miami where I live. And I’m like, okay, I said, we don’t have enough crazy down there now. You know, this could come. And I don’t know what the reaction will be, but I have to tell you, if we have to put up with protests, if we have to put up with road closings, if we have to put up with whatever. Nobody should be above the law. We need to get that done.
Watch above via ABC’s The View.