'There will be a federal Jan. 6 case' against Donald Trump: Mueller lead prosecutor

Former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Weissmann predicted on Tuesday's edition of MSNBC’s Deadline: White House that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith will charge ex-President Donald Trump with crimes related to the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection and Trump's foredoomed scheme to remain in power following his defeat in the 2020 election.

Weissman shared his foresight hours after host Nicolle Wallace recalled that Trump pleaded not guilty to the thirty-seven-felony-count indictment filed against him by Smith for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021.

"Yeah. I mean, I don't think they, they don't appear to be people that evaluate their feelings, you know, on the sad to happy scale. They seem to go after the facts and pursue anyone who breaks the law, right? Which is Donald Trump and Donald Trump and Donald Trump and Donald Trump seventy-one times and counting," Wallace said. "What is, what do we know about Jack Smith this week that we didn't know last week when it comes to vigorously he's going to pursue Trump's criminality around January 6th? He had witnesses before the Washington Grand Jury in that investigation today."

READ MORE: Retired general blasts 'moronic' defenders of Trump’s alleged theft of classified documents

"So, you know, look, I've been, um, famously predicting things as you've been noting, and what I would say is if you look at the fact that Jack Smith is hard-charging. If you look at the fact that the January 6th case to my mind, and I think to his mind, is the most serious of the cases, and that's, and that's even after this document's case, which is incredibly serious because it's in jeopardizing our national security," Weissmann responded.

"But Jan, the January 6th case, goes to the heart of our democracy. If you look at the fact that numerous people who are much more junior foot soldiers have been prosecuted and Donald Trump, um, was leading that. And the fact that this current indictment is so meticulous, um, and was prepared in relatively short order. And I, I have a good sense of like, how much it takes to put this together; I think there is no question that there will be a federal January 6th case. It would be brought in DC," Weissmann added.

"Against Trump?" Wallace asked.

"Against Trump, yes," Weissman confirmed. "For all the same reasons that this case is in Florida, which is, that's sort of the gravamen of the location where the crimes took place. And for the same reason, um, not all the cri — everything in the January 6th case took place in Washington, but the heart of it took place in Washington. So I just think it's very hard for me to look at what happened the past few days and say that Jack Smith is somehow gonna take a pass on the January 6th case. I also think that if [US District Judge] Aileen Cannon is going to slow this down that is going to lead Jack Smith to go as fast as he can on the January 6th case on the theory that consistent with due process for Donald Trump. That's the, the beginning. You have to have that first. But it's so important if you can do that for the American public to see a trial and to be a, to be able to evaluate that evidence prior to making a decision in the next election."

READ MORE: Retired conservative judge: Trump 'dared, taunted, provoked, and goaded DOJ' into indicting him

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: Nikki Haley: 'I would be inclined' to pardon Donald Trump