Former President Donald Trump was the subject of a brutal fact-check Monday after legal experts found his election flier claims that his court cases were keeping him from the campaign trail.
MSNBC legal expert Lisa Rubin took to the airwaves Monday to explain Trump doesn't have to appear in court this week for his cases after an email to supporters went viral.
"They're not obligations," Rubin said. "In fact, in none of these circumstances does former President Trump have to attend at all to the extent that he and his proxies are characterizing these as requirements and obligations."
Trump told his followers otherwise.
"There's nothing I'd rather be doing than spending every one of those days on the campaign trail speaking directly with voters like YOU," the email says. "TWICE in this final week, I will reportedly be forced off the campaign trail and into courtrooms for phony witch hunts in both New York and Washington, D.C. — the belly of the beast!"
Speaking to Ali Velshi on "Deadline White House," Rubin explained Trump is there "as a spectator."
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On Tuesday, the oral arguments begin at the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals where Trump's attorneys will argue he has universal presidential immunity that bars special counsel Jack Smith from prosecuting him on election interference charges.
On Thursday, however, final arguments will take place in the civil fraud trial in New York against the Trump Organization.
"Again, former President Trump has no role there," said Rubin. "It's a series of arguments that will be made to the judge that was a nonjury trial. Presumably, when it's over or on breaks, we can expect the former president to do what he's done all along in that case, which is to face cameras in the courtroom hallway and turn that into somewhere between a runway and ongoing fundraiser."
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) argued Trump has effectively pulled the campaign trail into the courtrooms.
"Donald Trump is attending these events not because he needs to, not because he has to, not because it's in his legal best interests, but because he wants the coverage this week," McCaskill said.
See the full conversation in the video below or at the link here.
Trump doesn't need to be in court — he wants the news coverage: expertswww.youtube.com
