Former President Donald Trump is likely to soon face a flood of “flipping” from his criminal co-defendants, according to legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.
Kirschner, a staunch critic of Trump and former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said during the latest episode of his Justice Matters podcast on Tuesday that “the walls are crumbling” for the “kingpin” ex-president.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 91 felony counts across four criminal indictments this year, claiming to be the victim of a “witch hunt” and “election interference” as he seeks to regain the presidency in 2024.
The former president was indicted alongside 18 co-defendants, accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome in Georgia, and alongside two co-defendants in a federal case related to Trump’s handling of sensitive documents.
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Kirschner argued that, based on his experiences as a federal prosecutor, “the flipping always begins” in cases involving multiple defendants or conspiracy charges. He predicted that “accountability” would “soon start flooding in” for Trump.
“I’ve dealt with enough co-defendant cases, conspiracy cases, RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] cases, to tell you that at some point, at some point, the flipping always begins,” said Kirschner. “Then at another point … the flipping tends to accelerate. And we are reaching that point right now.”
“The attorneys who represent [Trump’s co-defendants] … will get the best deals for their clients,” he added. “Those best deals will absolutely involve cooperating against the kingpin Donald Trump. The walls are crumbling, and accountability will soon start flooding in.”
In response to a request for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung on Tuesday night emailed Newsweek a previously shared statement calling Kirschner “a notorious trafficker of wild conspiracy theories and dubious legal analysis” who “has been shunned by the legal community at large.”
Kirschner’s remarks on Tuesday were in response to a Politico article published on the same day, which claimed that “Trump’s co-defendants are already starting to turn against him.” The article quotes former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen as predicting that the Georgia case “will be every defendant for himself.”
Cohen told Newsweek last week that “the extent of legal peril” that Trump is facing due to the likelihood that co-defendants will flip on him “is boundless.”
Tristan Snell, a lawyer and former assistant attorney general for New York state, has predicted that former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was indicted alongside the ex-president last month in Georgia, “will cooperate” with authorities.
While there is no evidence that Ellis has cooperated with authorities, she has publicly and repeatedly criticized Trump for refusing to fund legal defenses for herself and other co-defendants.
Concerns that co-defendant Rudy Giuliani could flip for the same reason may have prompted Trump to host a $100,000-per-ticket fundraiser for the ex-New York City mayor, which is set to take place in New Jersey on Thursday.
In response to reports last month that Mar-a-Lago IT director Yuscil Taveras, a witness, had flipped on Trump in the federal documents case, former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek that it was “very likely” others would follow suit.
