Prosecutors: Trump “stands alone in history”
Famous? Infamous? What’s the difference? So long as Donald Trump can wiggle out of accountability yet again, this time for conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 presidential election. His attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the federal charges brought against him over events leading to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Urging a federal judge to disregard Donald Trump‘s latest attempt to cast off his indictment in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, prosecutors at the special counsel’s office argue Trump’s criminality “stands alone” in history and that even if he genuinely believed the 2020 election was stolen, he still used “fraud and deceit” as a means to achieve illicit ends.
In his 79-page motion filed Monday, Jack Smith challenges Trump’s attempts to rewrite history and recast himself as victim. What he did leading up to Jan. 6 was not “advocacy.” (Emphasis mine.)
Trump, prosecutors continued, has wrongly attempted to “rewrite the indictment” by coloring his defense with suggestions that his conduct was justifiable because, among other reasons, he only targeted election officials who “were the most informed politicians on the planet” and would “come to their own conclusions” without relying on his assertions of rampant fraud.
“He is wrong,” prosecutors wrote Monday, “lack of success provides no defense to a charge of conspiracy to defraud, much less any basis to dismiss the charge.
In the U.S., a defendant does not have to pull off a conspiracy successfully to be convicted of participating in one or leading one.
“Were it otherwise, defendants captured en route to a bank robbery could not be charged with conspiracy because their crime did not succeed,” prosecutors wrote. “Indeed, a conspiracy can be committed even if the object of the conspiracy is unattainable.”
Special counsel also urged presiding U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to reject Trump’s insinuations that his speech and conduct around Jan. 6 were “admirable” or that because others in the past had objected to election results through legitimate means, it excused his speech and conduct as alleged.
“[The] defendant stands alone in history for his alleged crimes. No other president has engaged in conspiracy and obstruction to overturn valid election results and illegitimately retain power,” Smith wrote.
Trump told “knowing lies” to subvert the 2020 election and “knowing lies are neither opinions nor pure advocacy,” the motion states.
“And in any event, the defendant could not use so-called advocacy as a cover for his scheme to obstruct a governmental function through deceit,” Smith continued. “Knowing deceit aimed at defeating a government function constitutes a violation of the defraud clause, notwithstanding his attempts to sanitize his conduct.”
Team Trump is throwing against the wall everything they can get their hands on to see what sticks, no matter how laughable: claims he was exercising free speech, claims the election was rigged, claims of being treated unconstitutionally (double jeopardy).
Trump’s chances in federal court are slim to none. Delay is his game and reelection his “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Plus, the judges are not his principal audience. He’s making himself a martyr to MAGA confederates who sacked the Capitol and to those who stayed home. He raised a mob once.
The South will rise again. The losers have been waiting for nearly 160 years. But their fearful leader couldn’t give shit about them. Donald Trump is the black hole at the center of his personal galaxy.