O.J. Simpson—a man most famous for being acquitted of murder (or maybe being a passenger in a slow-moving vehicle after the murder)—thinks Trump should really start shutting the hell up.
“Hey Twitter world, yours truly here,” Simpson says in a video he tweeted Friday morning. He goes on to say that while “scrolling” TV he saw reports about “The Donald” admitting to having “secret” military information after leaving the White House. “I don’t know whether it’s bluster or not,” Simpson says...but thinks maybe Trump shouldn’t be waving around or admitting to having classified documents.
Seriously, the recording Simpson is referencing, according to several CNN sources, includes Trump “waving” a document around. At some point during the recording, Trump says, “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me.”
Later on Friday, the former president was indicted on 38 federal counts, according to an unsealed federal indictment. The indictment includes 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information; a count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; a count of withholding a document or record; a count a corruptly concealing a document or record; a count of concealing a document in a federal investigation; a charge of scheme to conceal; and two charge of false statements and representations, as a part of the special counsel’s investigation into classified documents at Trump’s Florida resort.
Simpson says continuing to talk about the investigation publicly will only hurt Trump. “All I know is that cannot help him. I’m going to share some advice that I got from some of the greatest legal minds of our generation, of my lifetime, F. Lee Bailey [editor’s note: Bailey was disbarred for financial misconduct], Alan Dershowitz [editor’s note: Dershowitz is a noted friend of Jeffrey Epstein], Johnny Cohran, Bob Shapiro, the great Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Malcom LaVergne in Vegas. The one thing they all told me and stressed to me: Do not talk about the case publicly. Do not do interviews about the case. The Bakers [editor’s notes: Phillip and Robert Baker of the Goldman civil suit] threatened to quit if I did that,” Simpson said. “My point is, I don’t know if Donald’s lawyers are stressing this to him. If they’re not, they should be fired and he should sue ‘em.”
It’s generally the best advice you can give someone going through the legal system: Shut the hell up and only talk to your lawyers. The problem is that Trump is a Poster™️ through and through. He built his own dumb version of Twitter after he got kicked off because he missed being able to deliver all capital letter diatribes to his rabid fanbase. The man loves to post!
The Florida indictment is truly just the latest in a string of legal investigations into the former president. The special counsel’s office is also investigating Trump’s role in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He was indicted in New York state back in March related to bad business practices relating to the Stormy Daniels hush money payment. That made him the first ex-president to face criminal charges. The Florida indictment makes him the first former president to face federal criminal charges. On top of all of that, the Fulton County district attorney is investigating Trump and his circle’s attempts to “find” more votes in the state after he lost Georgia in the 2020 election.
So, Trump’s got a lot going on. A smarter person might listen to O.J. Simpson’s counsel (talk about a sentence I never expected to type in my life) and, you know, not willfully go around bragging about doing illegal things. On second thought...you do you, Trump! Tell us everything!