Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley presented a dire legal situation for former President Donald Trump, who was hit with a 37-count federal indictment, including charges of willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements. The constitutional scholar told "Fox News Sunday" anchor Shannon Bream that the government only has to "stick the landing on one count" and Trump, who turns 77 this week, could face spending the rest of his life in prison.
JONATHAN TURLEY: The problem is that he's got to run the table. He's 76 years old. All the government has to do is stick the landing on one count and he could have a terminal sentence. You're talking about crimes that have a 10 or 20-year period as a maximum. The evidence here is quite strong and we haven't heard their other side. Generally, these indictments are a lot stronger on the day they're issued than the next day. So they may be able to knock down some of these issues, but some of this evidence is coming from his former counsel. And these are very damaging statements made against him. It may be hard to move those. The fact is both things may be true. Yes, the Department of Justice may have been out to get him, but he made it easy. I mean, if you look at what is being described in this indictment, confronted with someone that he felt was trying to get him, he couldn't have made it more easy for them to do so.
Turley, who called the charges "extremely damning" when the indictment was unsealed on Friday, echoed the sentiments of Trump's former Attorney General Bill Barr.
"If even half of [the indictment] is true then he's toast. It's a very detailed indictment, and it's very, very damning," Barr said, appearing with Bream.
Trump has claimed he will continue running for president in 2024 even if he is convicted.
"This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here--the victim of a witch hunt--is ridiculous. Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims, and I've been at his side defending him when he is a victim, but this is much different. He's not a victim here," Barr added. "He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has."
The indictment accuses Trump of failing to comply with demands to return classified documents — including plans for a retaliatory attack on an unnamed foreign power — he had gathered in Mar-a-Lago. Other documents include defense and weapon capabilities of the U.S. and details of the U.S. nuclear program.
"They took one charge, and they made it 36 different times. And we have a thug who is in charge. This is a political hit job, Republicans are treated far differently at the Justice Department than Democrats," Trump said in a speech at the Georgia Republican state convention.
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
