Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are preparing for the possibility that the tycoon will be criminally charged by the Department of Justice for attempting to annul the presidential elections of 2020.
The former president’s legal team began planning strategies and possible defenses, according to three sources familiar with the matter and cited by Rolling Stone. Trump himself was notified about the possible defenses at least twice this summer, the sources said.
The process gained momentum after the revealing statements by Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as a former Trump administration White House aide, in June before the Select Committee investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6 2021.
Hutchinson gave all the details of the behavior of the former president in relation to with January 6, which included that Trump had attempted to hang a Secret Service agent after he denied his request to be transferred to Capitol Hill.
“Members of Trump’s legal team are quietly preparing, in case charges are filed,” one of the sources told Rolling Stone. “It would be professional negligence not to do so.”
The person familiar with the matter added that the tycoon’s lawyers do not trust that everything the former assistant said is true, nor do they believe that the Justice Department think it’s sensible to impeach Trump. However, she said things have “reached the point” where the former executive’s interests would be better served by preparing for the possibility of charges being filed.
Furthermore, another source told the outlet that Trump’s lawyers could be inclined to blame other people for the break-in to the Capitol.
According to this second person, the former president’s team has been considering whether the former adviser, Mark Meadows or the lawyer John Eastman, could be scapegoats.
“Trump received some terrible advice from lawyers who, according to some people, should or should have known better,” the source told Rolling Stone. “An ‘advice of counsel’ defense would be important.”
So the select committee said in June that it had enough evidence in its possession to ask the Justice Department to indict Trump.
For his part, Attorney General Merrick Garland denied speculation that the Department of Justice is holding back from making the respective investigations into possible crimes related to the attack on the Capitol. In addition, he told NBC in July that a presidential campaign by the former Republican president in 2024 would not protect him from possible federal charges.
However, legal and political specialists are debating whether Trump will be impeached or not.
Meanwhile, the tycoon asked to an appeals court that grants him “absolute presidential immunity” with respect to civil lawsuits related to the events of January 6.
Also read:
- Texas man was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the assault on the Capitol on January 6; the worst sentence to date
- Criminal investigation against Trump for his attempt to change electoral results in 2020
- They sentence five years of prison man who assaulted the police during the assault on the Capitol