Glenn Kirschner, a longtime federal prosecutor who after leaving that decades-long stint in federal service now commentates for NBC and MSNBC, believes that evidence may be in place to prove a complete criminal conspiracy as could provide the foundation for criminal charges against Trump and others.
While caveats obviously remain and are going to linger until Smith actually secures the relevant grand jury’s approval for any charges, Kirschner characterized this evidence as compelling. In short, there has to be the appearance of a case before a formal case can actually be assembled, and the appearance of a case against Trump or others is what Kirschner was discussing.
He was referencing the ambitions from some in Trump’s circles to federally seize machines that had been used in the 2020 elections. No showing of secret election meddling carried out through that equipment has ever been conclusively made, but right-wing targeting of such machines has been consistent, including in multiple situations where individuals locally in charge helped facilitate the extraction of data from local election systems that could’ve actually endangered the security of the balloting process.
“In other words, how many people may have entered into a criminal agreement to seize voting machines, because once [Smith] determines who may have entered into that agreement and thought it was a good thing to do, we know, based on some reporting from about a year ago, that there was a draft presidential order directing the Secretary of Defense to seize voting machines, which would have been theft,” Kirschner told viewers on MSNBC, discussing the examination of a December 2020 meeting where the prospect of seizing machines came up. “It would have been illegal. But because somebody drafted that order, the conspiracy may have been complete, because all you need is the agreement to do it and one overt act, one act in the direction of committing it.”
“So let’s get this straight – in an Oval Office meeting there was an agreement to (unlawfully) seize state voting machines,” Kirschner added in a caption. “Then someone drafted a presidential order directing the Secretary of Defense to seize the voting machines (= an overt act). So … conspiracy complete.” Check out his comments below:
So let’s get this straight – in an Oval Office meeting there was an agreement to (unlawfully) seize state voting machines. Then someone drafted a presidential order directing the Secretary of Defense to seize the voting machines (= an overt act). So … conspiracy complete. pic.twitter.com/cdMkxdiMK6
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 10, 2023
