'Fitting' That Trump Could Face Jail for Alleged 'Stupid' Act—George Conway

Oct 17, 2023

George Conway has argued that for Donald Trump to be jailed for something "so stupid, pointless and silly" as keeping classified White House documents would be "fitting" for the former president whom he dubbed "a nihilistic moron."

The attorney and prominent Trump critic told MSNBC's Morning Joe on Tuesday that the legal probe was the "easiest, shortest" route to a conviction among several facing the Republican leader. "This isn't a hard case," he said, comparing it to a "buy and bust drug case because it's so simple."

The FBI searched Trump's private Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida in August last year, and discovered about 100 documents bearing classification markings.

Trump currently faces several other legal issues. In New York, he has pleaded not guilty in what prosecutors described as a hush-money scheme to cover up a potential sex scandal during the 2016 presidential race. In Georgia, prosecutors are probing Trump's alleged attempts to reverse the election results in that state.

"What's really, really remarkable about it is of all the things this man has done ... this documents case is probably the easiest, shortest, simplest and yet carries the most severe likely penalties of any of the legal issues that he's ever faced."

He continued: "For this man who is basically a nihilistic moron, for him to go to jail potentially for a long time, I mean these espionage act charges bring very heavy sentences. To eventually go to jail for something so stupid, pointless and silly and useless as keeping these documents is actually kind of fitting."

.@gtconway3d: "Of all the things that Trump's done—eight decades of lying, cheating, and stealing...For this man to go to jail for potentially a long time for something so pointless and silly and useless as keeping these documents, it's actually kind of fitting." pic.twitter.com/V7AG6t1nQm

Trump's lawyers were seen meeting with federal prosecutors to discuss the documents case on Monday. Conway suggested it could signal that investigators could soon bring charges, saying: "We're approaching the very end."

"Now people would say 'in a just world he would go to jail for what he did on January 6' and the weeks approaching January 6, and I kind of agree with that," Conway added.

Trump was impeached for a second time on January 13, 2021, for "incitement of insurrection" after his supporters stormed the Capitol building a week earlier.

Newsweek contacted via email on Tuesday an attorney for Trump and a spokesman for his 2024 Republican primary campaign.

Trump on Monday, June 5, criticized the notion that he might face charges over the documents case, highlighting that classified White House documents had also allegedly been discovered in President Joe Biden's office.

"HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG," he wrote on his Truth social platform. "WHEN NO OTHER PRESIDENT'S WERE CHARGED, WHEN JOE BIDEN WON'T BE CHARGED FOR ANYTHING, INCLUDING THE FACT THAT HE HAS 1,850 BOXES, MUCH OF IT CLASSIFIED, AND SOME DATING BACK TO HIS SENATE DAY WHEN EVEN DEMOCRAT SENATORS ARE SHOCKED."

Four days earlier, CNN reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is handling the DOJ's documents probe into the former president, had obtained an audio recording of the former president discussing in July 2021 how he held on to classified Pentagon material about a potential attack on Iran, and that he was aware that he no longer had power to declassify it since he left the White House.

In a statement about the audio reports, a spokesperson for Trump said "leaks from radical partisans" are designed to "inflame tensions and continue the media's harassment" of Trump and his supporters.