A prosecutor during the Watergate scandal believes that former President Donald Trump's alleged crimes, which may have been obscured by missing White House phone logs, could be worse than those of former President Richard Nixon.
It is said that Nixon's cover-up was worse than his crime. In an op-ed published on April 2 by NBC, Wine-Banks wrote that the reverse may be true for Trump.
She said that Trump's records gap is 25 times as long as Nixon's, but his alleged crime could be worse.
On the day of the Capitol riot, the White House call logs showed a seven hour and 37 minute gap. The House January 6 committee is investigating a possible cover-up because of the absence of these call records.
Wine-Banks said that a lot can be said in a short time.
Wine-Banks observed that she was not the only one to make a connection between Trump and Nixon.
Based on my experience and other experts, Nixon's gap seems to have been deliberate. Is it Trump? We don't have enough evidence to say for sure, but the missing chunk appears deliberate.
Wine-Banks said that the omission of vital data in the Trump case was suspicious and prompted a series of urgent follow-up questions.
It is likely that no one called in to the president during a crisis when he was in the White House. She wrote that even calls that go unanswered in the White House should be listed on official logs.
Wine-Banks said that while the gap in Nixon's conversation was about covering up a third-rate burglary, Trump's calls were likely about the insurrection and plans to overturn free and fair elections in the US.
The Watergate scandal centered on the Nixon administration's attempts to cover up their involvement in a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in Washington, DC. Nixon resigned in August 1974 as a result of the scandal.
There are parallels between Watergate and the scandals that plagued the White House during Trump's presidency.