Things at Mar-a-Lago may not be “shining merry and bright” as former President Donald Trump’s potential legal problems continue to deepen. Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal said he thinks Trump is “freaking out,” and I’ll explain why below.

Queerty reports we can, in large part thank Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for this. Cheney, as vice-chair of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol building, cited 18 U.S. Code 1505, which makes it illegal to obstruct government operations. Analysts say this may mean the committee is leaning favorably towards making criminal recommendations.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt said:

“Look, whatever they have, whatever they know, it was enough for Liz Cheney to go out and say what she did in these past few weeks where she read from the criminal code. I think this committee wants to be taken seriously. They wanted this to appear like it’s a bipartisan effort that is following the facts. Going out there and reading the criminal code is one of the more aggressive things that a congressional committee that has no power can do.”

“It was no accident she was saying it,” Schmidt explained. “The investigation has former federal prosecutors working on this. They don’t want to be embarrassed by sending some sort of frivolous letter to the Justice Department that would be ignored. They would want this to be a truly serious thing.”

Even though a criminal referral from the committee carries no legal weight, it may influence Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to charge Trump. Let’s hope that’s what happens here.

Katyal, in a separate MSNBC interview, put it like this:

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to learn Donald Trump is, to use the technical legal term, freaking out. He is freaking out because of the [introduction of the criminal code into the committee’s proceedings]. Also because there was a decision ten days ago by the federal court in Washington, D.C., by a Trump appointee and what the judge said is that one of the insurrectionists was guilty of violating this statute obstruction of an official proceeding, the count of votes on January 6.”

Katyal reminded us of the presidential powers that go out the window once someone is no longer president.

“Our entire constitutional system is set up to basically trust presidents and give them immense powers even to delay litigation or court cases against themselves because we don’t want random people to tie up the president and stop the nation’s business from being done,” Katyal said. “That is why our system was written as it is. It wasn’t written for someone like Donald Trump who abuses every lever in the system to delay, obstruct, and prevent things. That is one thing when you’re president. You got that suite of tools available. He doesn’t have them anymore.”

I’m not sure Trump is smart enough to understand this. He thinks he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He’s always operated this way. I’m also not sure he’s freaking out, for this very same reason. He continues to act like he’s above the law because he’s gotten away with so much with so little punishment in return.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’ve included clips of Schmidt’s and Katyal’s interviews below.

 

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