How Trump’s lawyers are trying to flip the scriptDonald Trump’s defenses in his federal election interference case are coming into focus: a mix of blame shifting, political attacks and a kind of legal gaslighting.
The indictment by the special counsel, Jack Smith, accuses Trump of “a multipronged endeavor to overturn the 2020 presidential election, disenfranchise voters, and obstruct the transfer of presidential power,” in the words of one of Smith’s assistants.
Defendants typically fight charges by denying responsibility.
But Trump and his lawyers, at least so far, aren’t saying that he didn’t do what he’s accused of; they are saying that he did it, but for benign, even admirable reasons.
Trump is trying to convince the court that the moves he made to cling to power were really “innocuous, perhaps even admirable conduct,” as prosecutors put it.
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Donald Trump’s, Jack Smith, Trump, ”
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