David French Says Trump Prosecutions Could Land Him Behind Bars: ‘Hardly Out of the Question’

New York Times columnist David French said on Mediaite’s The Interview podcast this week it’s not “out of the question” that ex-president Donald Trump could wind up behind bars.

French, a lawyer and writer previously with The Dispatch and The Atlantic, spoke with Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin for the latest episode of The Interview, primarily on the subject of Trump’s legal problems and the reactions of his base to those prosecutions.

French, who has argued that the case being brought against Trump in Manhattan by district attorney Alvin Bragg appears weak, told Mediaite the other cases against the former president are “far stronger.” Those include a special counsel investigation into whether Trump illegally retained classified documents from his time in the White House and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as a Georgia prosecutor investigating Trump for his efforts to overturn the race in the state.

French said the possibility of Trump serving time is “hardly out of the question,” considering the scope of the situation. But the Manhattan case probably won’t be the one to do it:

DAVID FRENCH: If the special counsel does uncover that Trump did intentionally bring information pertaining to the national defense back to Mar-a-Lago, held it in a not sufficiently secured fashion, and then attempted to evade returning those documents when demanded, he’s in trouble, he’s in real trouble.

AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: In any of these cases could you conceive of Donald Trump, former president, actually serving time for crimes?

DAVID FRENCH: Both in Georgia and in the federal case, it’s hardly out of the question. I think the New York case, this is a situation where he he doesn’t have a prior criminal record. It’s a very low-level felony allegation. It’s the kind of thing where, A, if the case survived, say, a motion to dismiss if you wanted to avoid trial, it’s the kind of case that a person would plea bargain their way out of jail time pretty easily in the normal course of business.

Now, I don’t think Trump has any interest in plea bargaining in that case. I think that Manhattan case he perceives as helping him. I think he perceives that because there is such a across the political spectrum condemnation or critique of the underlying charges.

I think for a lot of reasons, he sees that Manhattan case as not quite the real threat to his political fortunes that some of these other cases can be.

Watch the clip above, via Mediaite’s The Interview podcast.

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