Ex-prosecutor says Trump’s chances of being convicted are ‘extremely high’

Glenn Kirschner worked as a prosecutor for 30 years

A former US federal prosecutor has said there is an "extremely high" chance of Donald Trump being convicted in at least one of the criminal investigations against him.

Glenn Kirschner, who worked for six years as a prosecutor for the US Army and 24 years for the US government, told Sky News that the weight of Republican witnesses against Mr Trump would make it very difficult for him to claim he was being unfairly persecuted.

The former president is facing a total of 91 felony criminal charges across five jurisdictions, with allegations ranging from illegal election interference to mishandling classified documents.

"I think the odds of a conviction are extremely high," Mr Kirschner told Sky News.

"It's important to recognise who the witnesses are against Donald Trump. These are not Donald Trump's enemies or opponents, these are not angry Democrats."

"Interestingly, the people we know are likely to be on the witness list are almost exclusively Republicans. Some of them are his own former cabinet members, his former attorney-general, his former vice president.

"I believe the testimony we will see will come from a chorus of Republican voices. It makes it much more difficult for Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, to say 'they're all out to get me'."

Mr Kirschner further argued that if Mr Trump is convicted for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, then he is likely to receive a harsh sentence in order to deter future candidates from similar behaviour.

"Nobody knows if he will go to jail, but given the nature of his [alleged] crimes – assuming he's convicted for essentially trying to bring an end to the peaceful transfer of presidential power – I believe the judge and prosecution team understand that if you don't punish that dramatic wrongdoing, then you're giving the next aspiring dictator a green light to do it all over again."

Mr Kirschner, who once worked under Trump-era special prosecutor Robert Mueller, has previously argued that Mr Trump's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic amounted to manslaughter or even murder.

Both the federal government and the state of Georgia have charged Mr Trump over his wide-ranging scheme to reverse his election defeat, which prosecutors say amounted to a criminal conspiracy.

Mr Trump is also accused of illegally stockpiling classified presidential documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office, and of breaking campaign finance laws by paying hush money to the porn star Stormy Daniels.