Trump’s game plan to 'undermine' Jack Smith exposed by court filings: analysis

Former President Donald Trump enters 2024 facing four criminal indictments, and one of them — special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case — is scheduled to go to trial in March. Many legal experts, however, are saying that a delay is likely.

Delaying his criminal trials has been a big part of Trump's legal strategy. But CNN's Katelyn Polantz, in an article published on January 2, reports that delaying is only part of Team Trump's game plan.

"Recent court filings," according to Polantz, show that "other defense strategies have emerged" for Trump and his attorneys. And their objectives, she reports, include "absolving Trump…. of responsibility for the U.S. Capitol attack and positioning him as a victim of disinformation and overzealous government investigators."

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"Two under-the-radar court filings from Trump's team in late November offered the clearest glimpse yet into what the former president's lawyers may try to argue before a jury in the historic case," Polantz explains. "The filings say that his lawyers hope during the trial to point to people in the federal government he suspects are biased toward him, to foreign influence, and to election disinformation that led him to believe the 2020 contest was stolen."

Trump and his attorneys, according to the CNN reporter, are also trying to "undermine" Smith "by pointing to politics."

"The special counsel's office is asking Judge Tanya Chutkan to block any attempts Trump makes to nullify his jury, which his lawyers could do by trying to inject politics into the evidence presented," Polantz notes. "Nullifying means convincing at least one juror to vote to acquit him even if prosecutors prove the case against him beyond a reasonable doubt."

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CNN's full report is available at this link.