CNN Analyst Says Trump Surrendering at ‘Hellhole’ of a Jail — Could Make Co-Defendants Think About ‘Making a Deal’
CNN analyst John Dean said ex-President Donald Trump will surrender for arrest next week at a “hellhole” jail — which could make some co-defendants think about “making a deal.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced a new indictment of Trump at a press conference on Monday night on with 13 counts related to election crimes. Trump and the 18 co-defendants named in the indictment have been given until August 25 to surrender for arrest and arraignment, and Trump is expected to surrender Thursday.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN Tonight, anchor Jim Acosta noted this surrender doesn’t figure to be like the others — Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has promised that if Trump is arrested, he will be forced to pose for a mugshot, which would then be made available to the press.
Dean said that while the conditions at the Fulton County Jail might not affect Trump’s decision-making, the same may not be true of his alleged accomplices:
ACOSTA: And we’ve seen Trump motorcade in and out of his previous court appearances, John. I mean, do you think that this surrender could hit Trump a little differently than the ones that came before? And that — this is — I mean, somebody who is kind of the master of the spectacle, I don’t think this is the spectacle that he really wants to see or be a part of.
DEAN: No. The jail he’s going to surrender at is a hellhole. It has been — it has received a lot of negative and national attention. I think any of the defendants in this newly-charged case who get a whiff of that place may think twice about whether they want to stand trial or try to work out a deal.
I don’t think Trump will do that. He’s always the double-down guy. But, you know, I hope they do treat him like any other person and don’t give him special treatment. But he does have a Secret Service detail that has to protect him. So that will make some exception.
ACOSTA: Yeah, it’s going to be a wild scene, Mark and Van. I mean, Mark, let me just go to you. If 18 people get mugshots and Trump does not, if he somehow manages to not get a mugshot next week, although — I mean, from what the sheriff is indicating, it sounds like this is going to happen. But if he doesn’t, how is that going to play?
MARK MCKINNON, FORMER ADVISER TO GEORGE W. BUSH AND JOHN MCCAIN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF “THE CIRCUS”: Well, I think if the other 18 are, then he’s likely to. What we’re seeing from this judge increasingly is that she doesn’t intend to treat him any differently than the rest of the defendants.
The thing that’s unprecedented and fascinating about next week is that on the one hand, we’re going to have a national republican debate where Trump will not be on stage, and yet just the following day, he will be in a federal courthouse where we may see a mugshot. So, we may see a mugshot of Donald Trump, but we won’t see his face on the national stage in the debate, which is an interesting diametrically opposed visual that we’re not used to seeing with Donald Trump.
Watch above via CNN Tonight.
