Speaking with Charlie Kirk on Friday, journalist Julie Kelly said that there is the possibility that Trump could be denied release from jail if he is charged with obstruction of an official proceeding in relation to the events of January 6, 2021.
"It is setting extremely destructive, dangerous precedents, case law where a nonviolent felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding that was passed in the wake of the Enron scandal that has to do with tampering with witnesses and evidence can be distorted and used as a felony applied to political protestors, and a felony that not only could result in 20 years in prison, but also be used as justification, Charlie, to deny release of defendants accused of that nonviolent, basically process crime," Kelly said.
She noted that if Trump is charged with obstruction, "which he will be, I think that’ll be the first count," there are multiple cases that have set a precedence for denying relief of defendants" charged with this crime. Kelly said that Trump could also potentially face seditious conspiracy charges.
"Timeout. You’re trying to say that Donald Trump might not be granted bail?" Kirk asked.
Kelly said that "in multiple cases, there is precedent to deny the release of a defendant who’s been charged with obstruction of an official proceeding."
"So you would say that potentially, if Donald Trump was indicted on seditious conspiracy, they could prevent him from campaigning, access to a phone, he could be in a January 6th-style Gulag this fall," Kirk said.
Kelly said that Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team could ask to keep Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner, in custody awaiting trial. She added that the team could instead ask for "very strict release conditions," such as home confinement, a curfew, or the wearing of a monitor device.
"I don’t see any way that Jack Smith is just going to ask for regular release conditions for Donald Trump if he’s charged with these serious felony counts," she added.
Kelly said that both charges from Jack Smith stemming from the events at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, as well as charges out of Georgia from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in relation to alleged attempts to overturn the election results in the state in 2020 could both be handed down next week.
"They’re trying to normalize this, aren’t they Julie? They’re trying to make it seem as if this is no big deal, you know, just kind of roll your eyes, it’s fine. How should we respond to this?"
Kelly said she would like to see impeachment proceedings against former Chief Judge of the DC District Court Beryl Howell "because he she has been the biggest enabler in all of this" or FBI head Christopher Ray, "because that will touch on both January 6 classified documents, the raid of Mar-a-Lago, and of course the Hunter Biden investigation."
She said she is not supportive of impeaching Joe Biden, "because we would be doing the Democrats a favor," noting poor polling numbers for the President. "He should be forced to run on his record."
Kirk spoke on a Department of Justice superseding indictment that "is now explicitly charging Trump with a crime for allegedly possessing a classified war plan at Mar-a-Lago."
The charging documents reportedly accuse Trump of conspiring to delete security footage from Mar-a-Laho after the FBI requested it, "and as part of that they are now bringing criminal charges against an entirely new person."
Carlos de Oliveira, a maintenance man at Mar-a-Lago, has now been indicted on federal charges.
"In order to remove Trump, in order to destroy his legacy in the history books, so that populist nationalism, pro-American political forces are destroyed, it’s not enough to just go after Trump. They must go after the ordinary men," said Kirk.
"They’re going to try to destroy this man’s life," he said, adding that they are "going after the ordinary man." In Kirk's view, the point of going after de Oliveira is to force him into a plea agreement in which he testifies that Trump did intend to obstruct justice.
