During an appearance on MSNBC on Monday afternoon, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance slapped aside comments made by Donald Trump attorney Alina Habba who maintained her client can't be charged with obstruction of justice because he never deleted Mar-a-Lago surveillance videos.
Habba, who no longer represents the former president in criminal cases, having been moved over to acting as counsel for his Save America PAC, took to Fox News on Sunday with host Shannon Bream to push back at new charges filed by special counsel Jack Smith.
After MSNBC host Chris Jansing shared a clip of Habba stating her case, Vance was asked to weigh in and was brutally dismissive, starting out with "Talk is cheap."
"Is that a viable defense, Joyce?" the MSNBC host prompted.
"Well, talk is cheap when you're on television and you have the ability to say anything that you'd like to," the former prosecutor began.
"That is a pretty fact-free analysis of the situation," she continued. "The reality is that the government's pleadings reflect what the government believes it has evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court. And that evidence is very clear when it comes to obstruction of justice."
"The facts are, in essence, not challenged that the former president held onto documents, refused to turn them over and the government had to execute a search," she elaborated, "and now more details are emerging about events depicted on videotape, showing movement and documents that surfaced in Bedminster with Trump saying out loud that he was aware he no longer had the ability to declassify information and wasn't even sure he should be showing it to people in the meeting where he waves around the battle plan for Iran."
Turning back to Habba, she continued, "You know that is sort of 'good luck with that' sort of defense for Alina Habba; great perhaps for Trump and in the court of public opinion. Not very likely to succeed in a court of law."
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MSNBC 07 31 2023 13 09 44 youtu.be