,Must read interview with former Justice Department prosecutor about Trump's fate

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For some reason Salon used a photoshop of Trump speaking into a microphone presumably from a prison cell which does make sense. This is the photo RAWSTORY used for the same interview:

I'd have made and used an image of a very distressed Trump decidedly unhappy to be behind steel bars. Here's one Michael Cohen tweeted in May of 2021:

The British Tabloid The Sun - US published this article:

This one was made for a poster:

But I digressed. Regardless of how Trump is depicted the following is of profound importance.

Chauncey DeVega's Salon interview with former Justice Department prosecutor Kenneth Foard McCallion  is a must read for those of us, basically this is all of you who read this blog. 

Here are the first three paragraphs:

Will Donald Trump eventually be prosecuted, convicted and then imprisoned for his apparent high crimes, which may include violating the
Espionage Act? Attorney and author Kenneth Foard McCallion believes that the answer is probably no.

McCallion is a former Justice Department prosecutor who also worked for the New York State Attorney General's office as a prosecutor on Trump racketeering cases. As an assistant U.S. attorney and special assistant U.S. attorney, he focused on international fraud and counterintelligence cases that often involved Russian organized crime.

McCallion is also the author of several books, including "Profiles in Cowardice in the Trump Era" and "Treason & Betrayal: The Rise and Fall of Individual-1."

There are a few points that I found particularly interesting but the entire interview is a tour of the landscape, or perhaps better put as a tour de force, of legal troubles facing Trump.

On why he took the documents to Mar-a-Lago:

I don't know. But I do believe that kind of hubris, and that inability to really let go of the mantel of the presidency, may in the end be his undoing. Trump has certainly left himself open for being prosecuted for serious crimes related to espionage and various other things.

That kind of hubris, and that inability to really let go of the mantel of the presidency, may in the end be Donald Trump's undoing.

... here's one of many positive notes:

The Jan. 6 committee really gave the Department of Justice a lot of impetus and momentum. There are also good indications that justice may actually be done with the New York attorney general's [civil] case, and perhaps the Manhattan DA's [criminal] case too.

... and one of many references to Trump's personality:

Those of us who know Donald Trump also understand that he is probably beyond reformation and may actually be psychopathic.  

...another point to consider:

There are also good indications that justice may actually be done with the New York attorney general's [civil] case, and perhaps the Manhattan DA's [criminal] case too.

... on the big question of basically whether Trump is or isn't clinically delusional:

Did Trump really believe that the election was stolen from him in 2020? The frightening thing is that Trump has not only convinced many of his followers of that, he has probably convinced himself of that, which makes him the most dangerous kind of dictator or autocrat. He has lost all sense of any ability to pull back from the brink...

... but some optimism: 

But in the end, I do believe that the pendulum will swing back, much as it did with, for example, Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s with his Red scare. I truly think the wheel will turn and we're not going to go over the cliff.  

People of ambition and of monumental ego, like Donald Trump, have blind spots. Trump is bringing himself down. 

... here's some psychology comparing Trump to leaders of organized crime families:

Remember, these people are pathological liars. I'm sure that Donald Trump, if he was given a polygraph, would pass with flying colors. It's a matter of experience, plus a natural sociopathic ability to lie. 

... and here's an explanation as to how to try Trump for the documents case:

It has to be laid out very simply for the jurors. It's basically two plus two equals four. You have Trump with these documents, some of them in a basement, but some of these top-secret documents were found by the FBI next to his passport in a private part of his desk. These documents were close to him every day. Trump certainly had knowledge and awareness of the documents; he knew they were top secret. He knew they had been taken from the White House. I think that you would just put it to a jury that you don't leave your common sense and good reason at the door when you are sworn in as a juror. 

... here's a rather benevolent opinion on why he took the documents:

Actually, on this point, I give Trump somewhat the benefit of the doubt. I think his ego would not let him leave all the trappings of power back in the White House. In his mind, he had to take something.

There, I've given you tidbits from the interview as I read down the page, but this is only halfway through the excellent Chauncey DeVega *(see below) interview with a very astute legal expert. 

If you want to find out the answer to why this former federal prosecutor says that a day of reckoning is coming for Trump but he's not going to jail you will have to read the entire interview. You can read it on Salon here, but if you want to make and read comments read it on RawStory here.

Footnote 

* Chauncey DeVega is in great company among excellent writers at Salon (Heather "Digby" Parton, Amanda Marcotte, Matthew Rozsa for example) and has interviewed some of the major mental health professionals like Dr. John Gartner, Bandy Lee, MS, and Lance Dodes, MD, about Trump's dangerous psychopathology. He's been published in many mainstream mostly liberal media but not these in his own bio:

"Fox News, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Juan Williams, Herman Cain, Alex Jones, World Net Daily, Twitchy, the Free Republic, the National Review, NewsBusters, the Media Research Council, Project 21, and Weasel Zippers have made it known that they do not like me very much."

I can say, no-brainer that it is, that he is to be complemented on who his enemies are.

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