Proud Boys' efforts to call Trump to their defense will blow up in their faces: prosecutor

As they stand trial for seditious conspiracy over their role in the January 6 attack, members of the far-right group the Proud Boys are trying to subpoena former President Donald Trump as their "star witness" — but that effort is doomed to fail, wrote former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Tuesday for MSNBC.

"Members of the Proud Boys organization, including chairman Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, are on trial on charges of, among other things, being involved in a seditious conspiracy designed to violently overthrow the government or forcibly resist the laws of the United States. And they have decided to call in their defense a most unlikely witness: former President Donald Trump," wrote Kirschner. The point of this play, he wrote, is that their lawyers "are hoping to elicit testimony from Mr. Trump that could persuade the jury that he, rather than their clients, instigated the crowd that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6."

But there are multiple reasons why this won't work, wrote Kirschner.

First of all, he said, "it is extremely unlikely Trump will say anything about encouraging an attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. To the contrary, Trump might try to convince the jury that he never said or suggested the Proud Boys or anyone else should storm the Capitol, so the Proud Boys are wholly responsible for their decisions to do so." And second of all, "Given recent history, it’s clear Trump is not afraid to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights," meaning they may not be able to get any meaningful testimony out of him at all, let alone testimony that shifts the blame off of them and onto himself.

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Trump has previously made public statements encouraging the Proud Boys, famously telling them to "stand back and stand by" in a presidential debate. And he has been accused by Democratic officials and some Republicans of inciting the Capitol attack by pushing election conspiracy theories and telling people to "fight like hell" at a speech on the National Mall just ahead of the riot or "you're not going to have a country anymore." The former president has subsequently claimed he never meant this literally.

The Proud Boys are not alone; numerous other January 6 defendants have tried to excuse their crimes by claiming Trump gave them permission, or somehow tricked them, into storming the Capitol. So far, judges have granted little if any leniency in response to this argument.

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