'That's still a crime': CNN legal analyst knocks down 'completely baseless' Trump defense
Former President Donald Trump, fresh off his unsuccessful demand to subpoena supposedly "missing" January 6 investigation documents, is now trying to argue that he was right all along to contest the 2020 presidential election results — despite over 60 courts having found no basis for doing so at the time.
That isn't going to fly, said Temidayo Anganga-Williams, a former investigator for the House January 6 Committee on CNN Wednesday — and the simple reason for that he still didn't use legal means to pursue his grievances.
"On the legal side, they lost how many dozens of court challenges here?" said anchor Phil Mattingly. "The election clearly was not fraudulent or stolen and many people told Trump that. How do you make this case if you're a Trump lawyer?"
"I think, speaking first to the filing, it's completely baseless," said Aganga-Williams. "It's a complete red herring. He is trying to get documents that have nothing to do to the question whether or not he is guilty here, whether he had a criminal intent here."
"I think what he is doing is asking for documents that, across the U.S. government from the intelligence agencies, Department of Justice, and saying, if you find these documents it could help me prove my case," Aganga-Williams continued. "What the Trump defense lawyer is trying to do, I didn't have criminal intent if I am the former president. I didn't intend to do something criminal because, in my head, my subjective mind, I thought I was doing something legal."
"That is not a defense here," he added. "What I mean by that is that you can think subjectively that the election was stolen. It doesn't mean you get to storm the Capitol, for example. And that's the difference. If you're engaging in something that you believe to be illegal, even if you have good intentions, that's still a crime. That distinction is going to be really important."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Leave a Comment