Legal analyst 'underwhelmed' by how few Trump allies are willing to defend him in court
A legal analyst has been struck by the lack of names Donald Trump has on his witness list for the 2020 election and Jan. 6 trial in federal court.
Speaking to MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Monday, legal analysts Lisa Rubin and Andrew Weissmann talked about the list of potential witnesses who could step up to defend Trump in the case.
Rubin referenced the Colorado 14th Amendment case — which looked at if he should be struck from the electoral ballot for being an insurrectionist — as an excellent example of what Trump is likely to do at the federal level to defend himself against charges that he encouraged the Jan. 6 riot.
That hearing ended last week with the ruling that Trump did take part in an insurrection, but the judge could not remove him from the ballot because the 14th Amendment does not apply to the presidency.
"Trump had attorneys there, and he presented witnesses that were supposed to show the court why he had not participated in an insurrection," Rubin began. "When I look over that list of witnesses, I will say I am underwhelmed by the people who apparently were close enough to Trump to know he didn't participate in an insurrection and yet willing to come to court."
She said that the list includes the usual suspects, like his former adviser Kash Patel, but not much else. That said, Rubin also noted that any witness called by the prosecutors will be cross-examined by Trump's defense team.
"I will be very interested to see if people who are much closer to the inner circle around Donald Trump are willing to take on that risk because, as you know, in the federal election interference case, there are no other defendants at present, and there isn't yet an indication necessarily that the Department of Justice will charge others."
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There's also the matter of people like Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, who has cooperated to some extent with prosecutors. It's unknown if he cut a deal, but it's also unknown if others associated with the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 case have done so.
"So, I will be looking to that list to see who is willing to raise their hand and take on that risk," Rubin continued. "Or is there an indicator in that list that somebody has cut a deal and [has] agreed to testify for the government, who also can't escape testifying for the defense."
The panel also addressed the ruling Monday by Judge Tanya Chutkan — who's overseeing the Jan. 6 trial — which overruled Trump's request to subpoena "missing materials" in the House Select Committee report into the riot. She said many of the documents he's asked for don't exist.
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