‘Absolutely no way that Donald Trump will end up behind bars’: Reagan Foundation head on New York grand jury indictment

John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, joins Yahoo News Reporter Tom LoBianco to discuss what may be next as former President Donald Trump is set to be arraigned on criminal charges following an indictment by a New York grand jury. Heubusch, who previously ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tells Yahoo News, “There’s immense latitude as to what constitutes a violation of campaign finance laws and what does not.” He adds, “I don’t think you’d need a lawyer at a thousand bucks an hour to tell you that Donald Trump is going to win that, if and when that ever comes to the fore.”

Video Transcript

TOM LOBIANCO: Need to ask about the pressing news here, which is the indictment of a former US president for the first time in American history. What do you make of all this?

JOHN HEUBUSCH: I make of it that the Democrat party has decided that until his last dying breath, it is going to badger, poke, prod, insult, oppose-- use whatever word you want-- Donald Trump. And this is just one more example of it. The the way that his home was raided at Mar-a-Lago is another example.

TOM LOBIANCO: Do things like that-- in the New York case, which was passed over by a federal prosecutor who determined there was not enough evidence there, and certainly has a number of holes in that-- do these things-- the Stormy Daniels case, the the documents case-- does it cloud more serious cases like January 6th? Like the special counsel investigation of what led up to an attempt to overturn a valid election.

JOHN HEUBUSCH: Yeah. You know, again, one of my roles in the past, I ran the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. And I've been deposed, and been involved in lawsuits and all sorts of things when it comes to federal election law.

And do you want to talk about gray area, and where there's immense latitude as to what constitutes a violation of campaign finance laws and what does not. Believe me when I tell you, this one that is being taken up in New York, fits in the gray of the gray of the gray. You know?

And I don't think you'd need a lawyer at $1,000 an hour to tell you that Donald Trump is going to win that-- if and when that ever comes to the floor, he's going to win that one hands-down. And we're going to see that it was just badgering or pestering of a former president. It's absolutely no way that Donald Trump will end up behind bars as a result of a supposed violation of federal election law. It's not going to happen, and therefore, it is a grand waste of this nation's time. That would be my position.