Donald Trump's lawyers are already at work on a defense of possible criminal charges from the Justice Department
Donald Trump's lawyers apparently believe that the ex-president will be criminally charged for his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and subsequent efforts to stop the Electoral College vote count.
Rolling Stone reported Sunday evening that three different sources wrote to the magazine to report the Trump lawyers are at work on strategy and defense options if the Justice Department charges the former president.
The work began months ago, but according to the report, after former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified, the legal team's "effort intensified." After Hutchinson's testimony, Trump went off on her, saying that she wasn't mentally sound and calling her "crazy." He implied that the only reason that she was coming forward with the accusations was to promote her own career. She has actually been under threat and intimidation since it was revealed she gave information to the committee and is now in hiding.
The lawyers are discussing ways that they can find someone else to blame instead of Trump.
"Trump got some terrible advice from attorneys who, some people would argue, should have or must have known better," one of the sources told Rolling Stone. "An ‘advice of counsel’ defense would be a big one."
One of the things explained by Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor with Robert Mueller's team, is that the evidence is showing former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) could end up being the fall guy. Witnesses have testified that he was in every meeting with Trump dealing with Jan. 6, the so-called "Stop the Steal" rally, and other schemes.
"The timeline is, I think, the key because there is a ticking clock," Weissmann said. "And I think that what you're ultimately going to have to see is the department trying to get witnesses and putting pressure on or charging people like Mark Meadows."
Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner explained that Meadows is only going to be the fall guy if the DOJ allows him to be.
"Should he be charged for his crimes, absolutely, but does that mean the Department of Justice should stop at Mark Meadows? Absolutely not," said Kirschner. "Donald Trump is the hub, of the hub and spoke conspiracy that I've been talking about, including on your show for a very long time. Donald Trump is the hub from which all of these criminal spokes radiated. You know, we heard about this battle royale in the Oval Office with Team Normal, the folks that passed for adult in the Trump administration, and the crazies, the QAnon people, the Powells and Giulianis and you got the sense from listening to the evidence that everyone in the room knew that there was absolutely no evidence supporting these absurd claims of election fraud."
Another legal strategy they're discussing is saying that Trump has a First Amendment right to say whatever he wants and to petition his government or political grievances. Rolling Stone cited the sources saying that such arguments were viewed internally as the best way to fight back against the "fake electors" scheme.
In a statement after the eighth public hearing of the House Select Committee, the former president released a statement admitting to the attempt to overthrow the Electoral College count.
"This was a major event because everybody ganged up and said that Mike had no choice, he could not send the slates back to the States (which is all I suggested he do)," he said.
A former top lawyer in Trump's White House, Ty Cobb, said in June that he thinks criminal prosecutions are possible.
"Whether they are advisable is a more difficult consideration for the country,” he said. “Possible for Trump and [Mark] Meadows certainly. And for the others, including lawyers, who engaged fraudulently in formal proceedings or investigations.”
The Trump insider was dismissive that it goes beyond good lawyering, "We’ve gotten to a point where if you don’t think criminal charges are at least somewhat likely, you are not serving the [former] president’s best interests."
AFPTrump’s Lawyers Are Preparing Legal Defenses Against Criminal ChargesAccording to internal communications reviewed by Rolling Stone, Trump’s team is “quietly” planning for criminal charges as they wait for the Justice Department to make its move
Donald Trump's lawyers are preemptively preparing a legal defense against criminal charges from the Justice Department, as the former president’s lawyers are increasingly anxious that their client will be prosecuted for his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Members of the ex-president’s legal team have already begun brainstorming strategy and potential defenses, according to three people familiar with the matter and written communications reviewed by Rolling Stone. Trump himself has been briefed on potential legal defenses on at least two occasions this summer, two of the sources say.
That effort intensified after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s June testimony before the House committee investigating Jan. 6.
“Members of the Trump legal team are quietly preparing, in the event charges are brought,” says one person familiar with the situation. “It would be career malpractice not to. Do the [former] president’s attorneys believe everything Cassidy said? No … Do they think the Department of Justice would be wise to charge him? No. But we’ve gotten to a point where if you don’t think criminal charges are at least somewhat likely, you are not serving the [former] president’s best interests.”
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Official Trump spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
In their preparations, Trump’s team has discussed strategies that involve shifting blame from Trump to his advisors for the efforts to overturn the election, per the three sources, reflecting a broader push to find a fall fall-guy — or fall-guys. “Trump got some terrible advice from attorneys who, some people would argue, should have or must have known better,” says one of the sources with knowledge of recent discussions in Trumpland. “An ‘advice of counsel’ defense would be a big one.”
Other potential strategies include defenses based on the First Amendment and the right to petition the government over a political grievance. Such arguments are viewed internally as potential defenses against charges related to the “fake elector” scheme.
Federal prosecutors have questioned aides to former Vice President Mike Pence about Trump’s involvement in his campaign’s effort to put forth slates of those fake electors, the Washington Post reported last week. After Trump lost the election in November, his campaign and supporters recruited the fake electors to proclaim Trump to be the recipient of their state’s electoral college votes. The effort aimed to provide an air of legal legitimacy to Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories, as well as to pressure officials in battleground states to declare him the winner. The effort failed, but it has since attracted the attention of prosecutors, not just at the Justice Department, but in the swing states where Republicans assembled slates of phony electors.
If the Justice Department does come with charges, Trump’s current team has acknowledged they would have to bring on more legal firepower to handle the historic legal defense. “You’d need to have a real heavyweight at the top [of the legal team] for something like that, but right now nobody knows who that would be,” one Trump adviser says.
Some of Trump’s higher ranking legal and political counselors doubt Attorney General Merrick Garland would be willing to go through with charges. Biden’s pick for Attorney General has been long regarded as a consummate institutionalist, wary of the unintended consequences or precedents that could come from criminally charging a former president.
“I do think criminal prosecutions are possible. Whether they are advisable is a more difficult consideration for the country,” Ty Cobb, a former top lawyer in Trump’s White House, told Rolling Stone in June. “Possible for Trump and [Mark] Meadows certainly. And for the others, including lawyers, who engaged fraudulently in formal proceedings or investigations.”
Criminal charges against a former president would mark the first time in American history that a former president has been prosecuted for crimes committed in office. A Nixon-era Justice Department memo, reiterated during the Clinton presidency, stated that presidents should not be charged while in office. But how the prosecution of a former president could take place legally remains unclear, given the lack of precedent, and would invite constitutional challenges ending up to the Supreme Court.
Trump also seems keenly aware of the blowback that could result from a federal indictment — and is telling supporters it could be politically advantageous. Early this year, the former president told fans at a Texas rally that if prosecutors go after him, “we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had…in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere.”
Trump has that rally repeated versions of that line to confidants and longtime pals, including at casual gatherings this summer, a person with direct knowledge of the matter says. “He says,” the source recalls, “it would make the crowd size at [Jan. 6] look small by comparison.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-lawyers-planning-for-charges-1390669/
