Maggie Haberman Says Trump World Caught Off Guard By Powell Plea: ‘They’re Trying to Figure Out What It Means’
New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said the Sidney Powell guilty plea caught ex-President Donald Trump and his inner circle by surprise, adding they’re scrambling “to figure out what this means.”
Trump has been grabbing the spotlight all week by showing up to his trial in the fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron.
But on Thursday morning, attention shifted to Georgia with the blockbuster news that Powell — one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election crimes case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis — has accepted a plea deal that will require her testimony at future trials.
On Thursday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, Haberman — considered an expert on Trump with deep experience reporting on the subject and a network of Trumpworld sources that give her up-to-the-minute insights — painted a picture of turmoil in Trumpworld following the deal:
BASH: Maggie, what are you hearing from inside Trump world about this deal? And what are the sort of reverberations happening?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Yes. Dana, this caught Trump world by surprise as it did all of us. This was one of the best kept secrets out of that D.A.’s office in some time. They’re still trying to figure out what it means. There are some people in his world who are telling me they don’t think this is that big a deal for him. They think that her ability to actually really testify as marginal.
They’re arguing that this shows that the D.A. overcharged in this case. The flip side is the argument that she intentionally charged this way so that she could end up getting guilty pleas. And there’s nobody who’s happy about it. You know, there is concern about the degree to which Powell could offer information not just about former President Trump but about Rudy Giuliani as noted before.
Now, the former president is still down and most concerned right now with the New York A.G. case, which is about his business. And that is really where the bulk of his mindshare is. But there’s nobody in Trump world who is pretending this is a good development. They’re just, you know, split on what exactly it means.
BASH: That’s such an important point that we have to keep remembering. And it’s easy to do when there’s so much happening in the world. But the former president was in New York this week, because he is so worried about what the civil trial up their means for his businesses.
Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.
