Jack Smith’s 'strategic call' could shut down Trump's potential legal argument: expert
A legal expert on Wednesday suggested that one of the federal statutes under which Donald Trump is expected to be indicted would effectively shut down a potential legal argument from the former president.
Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said that one of the three statutes Jack Smith is likely to use to indict Trump includes obstruction, which in her view would eliminate the possibility that the former president could avoid a conviction by claiming he believed the election was stolen.
Trump learned that he’s likely to be indicted in a target letter he said he received from the special counsel’s office on Sunday night.
Other statutes under which Trump is likely to be indicted according to the target letter include conspiracy and civil rights violations.
“With obstruction of an official proceeding, I don't think you have to know that you actually lost the election there, it’s just anything that you do to disrupt that proceeding is sufficient, maybe even the civil rights claim, the deprivation of rights, it's enough that you tried to subvert the process,” McQuade during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
“And so maybe that is the workaround that if they failed to prove that Donald Trump actually knew that he had lost the election, there may be a way for a jury to reach a verdict of guilty on those other two counts without even finding that's the case.
“It happens all the time in obstruction of justice charges. A person might say, ‘but I'm innocent, so I told the person to lie for me.’”
McQuade suggested that would be an ineffective argument.
“The fact that you're innocent is great, but the part where you told them to lie for you is still a crime. So it may be that this is a strategic call by Jack Smith, to avoid having to prove that Trump actually knew he had lost the election.”
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