Does he know that public opinion of him as a candidate or even as president cannot save him in a courtroom?
On “Meet the Press” last week, former President Donald Trump made a compelling case highlighting the differences between his years in office and President Joe Biden’s. He also substantially and irretrievably undercut his principal defense in the four criminal cases in which he is a defendant.Four grand juries, each in a different jurisdiction, have indicted Trump on various felony charges.
Yet, last week on “Meet the Press,” Trump revealed that his legal team in the White House told him that he lost the election and there was insufficient evidence to challenge or overturn it. Then he said that he opted to ignore their advice “because I didn’t respect them.” “It was my decision,” to do what I did, not theirs. Ouch. If he was not taking the advice of his lawyers, then he cannot invoke the advice of counsel defense. Either he relied on the advice of his legal team or he didn’t.
Congressman Williamson told the jury that his lawyer told him that he could tell his client how to sign the document. The Congressman was convicted and the Supreme Court reversed, finding as a matter of law that the government failed to prove willful and unlawful intent. Thus, in order to invoke this defense, Trump will need to call to the witness stand the lawyers whom he told Lauro gave him legal advice and guided what he did in the days and hours leading up to Jan. 6. He’d then need to have those lawyers explain to the jury that he made full disclosure to them of what he planned to do and received and accepted their advice telling him that the specific course of conduct in which he planned to engage was lawful.