'High-wire act': Ex-prosecutor says John Eastman just risked blowing up his own trial
Former President Donald Trump's legal adviser John Eastman, indicted in the Georgia election racketeering case for his role in drafting the strategy to illegally overturn the counting of electors, remains publicly defiant, and is appearing on TV and giving speeches denying that he has done anything wrong.
Speaking to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Wednesday, former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade outlined the stealthy but precarious strategy she believes Eastman is employing with this public relations blitz.
"Let me begin with you, because we on this program are focused on every word of defense that comes out of the Trump side of any of these cases, anything they say by way of defense," said O'Donnell. "So here is John Eastman's first presentation of his defense, of sorts, and that's really everything that he has said tonight that was relevant to his defense. But he seems to be clinging, at least at this stage, to the notion that he never said just unilaterally reject the electorates. But there are going to be plenty of witnesses testifying against him and his criminal case, saying that's exactly what he advocated."
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"This is such a high-wire act by a defendant, to be talking in the media, knowing that they are facing trial down the road," said McQuade. "I can only saying that the strategy has to be this: I want to convince people to a public relations campaign that I am innocent of these crimes, so that the talking points get out there and Trump gets elected and everybody believes this was all just some aggressive legal strategy."
"I also have to believe he has chosen, made a decision he will not be testifying in trial, because if he does testify, he will get attacked with all of these things that he just said, that contradict some of the things in evidence," McQuade continued. "He talks about, he never sent any emails that were incriminating. There are all kinds of emails that a judge has found that actually make the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege."
"So it seems the strategy is to try to go on the offensive, or in public trust, even if ultimately a trial might not go his way," added McQuade, "because the goal is to make sure there is no trial at all."
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