A Republican columnist rejected former President Donald Trump’s cries of “witch hunt” and victimization – and urged his prosecution.
Writing for the conservative National Review, Andrew McCarthy – a former prosecutor who authored a book called ‘Ball of Collusion: The Plot To Rig An Election And Destroy A Presidency – said GOP arguments that Trump’s enemies were aiming to bring him down make no sense.
“Now, since we’re hearing a lot, and we’re going to hear a lot more, about selective prosecution, about the sense that the “boxes hoax” is the “biggest witch hunt of all time,” understand this,” he wrote.
“The evidence of this soliloquy — wherein it was Trump-splained that a “great job” by a lawyer entails making incriminating evidence disappear and taking the fall for it so the client escapes jeopardy — does not come from Donald Trump’s enemies.”
Instead, he said, the 37-count indictment leveled at Trump comes from evidence gleaned from the former president’s own lawyers.
He went on: “These are not the people who want to take him out. This is not Joe Biden, Liz Cheney, congressional Democrats, or the “fake news” media. It’s not even RINO Republicans or that (apparently) fiercest of political combatants, “Ada” Hutchinson.
“No, the evidence comes from Trump’s lawyers. The people who were trying to minimize his criminal exposure and push back against his destructive tendencies. The people who were trying to help him.”
Included in the evidence are notes made by lawyer Evan Corcoran, detailing conversations in which Trump discussed denying he has classified documents and even suggested they be destroyed.
“As for Trump, say what you want about Democrats being out to destroy him,” McCarthy wrote. “I know all about that — wrote a book about it, in fact. But if Trump ends up being destroyed in this case, it will be based on the accounts of people who had his best interests at heart.”
He added: “Every official who is entrusted with access to the nation’s secrets, and who then betrays that trust by willful law violations and cover-ups, should be prosecuted. Every . . . single . . . one.
“And none of them has any business near power.”