Watch: Ex-Trump lawyer pours cold water on prospective defense against Jack Smith filing
Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore on Thursday told CNN that he didn't think his one-time client would have much success if he tried to argue that everything discussed in special counsel Jack Smith's latest filing fell under the Supreme Court's presidential immunity doctrine.
During an interview with John Berman, Parlatore was asked about why Smith went out of his way to demonstrate that former President Donald Trump's infamous "Stop the Steal" rally on January 6th, 2021 was a campaign event and not an official presidential act, going so far as to document how Trump used music played at his 2020 campaign rallies rather than more formal presidential music such as "Hail to the Chief."
"There were certain things he did that were clearly campaign-related," Parlatore acknowledged. "I never tried to advance the argument that everything here was presidential."
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Parlatore nonetheless accused Smith of "cherry picking" facts about that rally by saying that Trump telling his supporters to "peacefully" march to the Capitol undermines Smith's claims that the former president wanted the riot to occur, despite the fact that Trump sat and watched for three hours as his supporters broke into the Capitol, while also ignoring multiple pleas from his fellow Republicans to call off the rioters.
Berman then asked Parlatore if he believed that Trump's January 5th conversation with Steve Bannon would be deemed an "official act" by the president, and the former Trump attorney once again indicated it would not.
"I'm pretty sure that that would be political, Parlatore acknowledged. "Steve Bannon, he was no longer with the White House at that point."
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