‘Well You’re Wrong!’ CNN Legal Analyst Torpedoes Trump Defense For Trying To Destroy Evidence

CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams torpedoed a defense that ex-President Donald Trump offered to the charge he and two others conspired to destroy evidence.

Trump has been ranting his head off since Special Counsel Jack Smith filed three additional charges against Trump last week: one additional count of unlawful retention of National Defense Information and two new obstruction counts based on allegations that Trump and co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in the summer of 2022.

But on Monday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, Williams took on Trump’s Truth Social expulsion of the claim “MAR-A-LAGO SECURITY TAPES WERE NOT DELETED” and “I NEVER TOLD ANYBODY TO DELETE THEM” in succinct fashion:

BASH: And inside the substance of this is, of course, what we learned late last week about the superseding indictment, alleging that the former president had this individual — wanted this individual to delete security fake footage that showed that he allegedly had documents that he wasn’t supposed to have over the weekend. Actually yesterday, the former president did one of those all-caps posts. Mar- a-Lago security tapes were not deleted. I never told anybody to delete them. Decode that in legal speak.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you’re wrong in legal speak, because he’s saying that — he seems to be saying that because the act of deletion wasn’t completed, there’s no crime. What the charges say is that number one, inducing another person to obstruct justice to delete footage is itself a crime. And also, conspiring with others to obstruct justice in the form of deleting video footage is a crime.

You don’t have to have actually deleted the footage. But if I say to you, go delete that footage so that law enforcement can’t have access to it. And then you take steps toward doing that, that’s a crime, even if the footage doesn’t get deleted.

BASH: What if he doesn’t say it explicitly? What if he says, it in a subtle way that the people who know him know what he’s saying.

WILLIAMS: It’s harder to prove, but it’s certainly provable in court? And clearly, they appear to have a witness that’s Trump employee number four. And as listed in the indictment, who seems to be ready to testify that no, we understood fully what the president was asking us to do.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.