Former President Donald Trump’s attorney, John Lauro, spoke Wednesday with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie over the Biden Justice Department’s attempt to force a trial on Trump’s latest indictment before the 2024 election. sparred.
Jack Smith announced Tuesday that Trump has been indicted for attempted interference in the 2020 election and for alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riots.
Trump was charged with “conspiracy to deceive the United States,” “conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and obstruct the January 6 trial,” and “conspiracy to vote and be counted.”
Lauro appeared on The Today Show to discuss the latest indictment.
“The special counsel said yesterday he wants a speedy trial. That’s 70 days from now. Are you ready? Do you want to see a speedy trial?” Guthrie asked.
“Well, the right to a speedy trial is the defendant’s right, not the government’s. We have the right to understand what the charges are. We have the right to conduct our own investigation. Or the Department of Justice, the Biden Department of Justice has been given 3 years to look into this, of course it’s ridiculous to put President Trump on trial in 90 days, the question is why would they do that If we want justice, we need to give President Trump a chance to get all the evidence and figure out what the facts are,” Lauro said.
“Well, I think you’re pretty confident that you can win this case—” Guthrie replied.
“Absolutely. We are going to win,” said Lauro.
“At the very least, do you think you want this issue resolved before the election?” Guthrie asked.
“I want to get all the evidence,” said Lauro. “I would like an opportunity to take our case to a jury. This is the first time the First Amendment has been criminalized. This is the first time that it has been criminalized to publicly express one’s position and get involved in political affairs.”
“I’ll have to give him some time on that—” Guthrie interjected.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says Lauro.
“Well, the indictment says the president has the right to speak under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and even the right to lie under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We criminalize deeds, not words,” Guthrie responded.
“No, it criminalizes speech,” Lauro retorted. “What the president saw in the 2020 election was all the ongoing misconduct, including affidavits, testimony, and examples of rules being changed in the middle of a game. They had the right to act politically, and in a criminal case all they had to prove was that whatever they said was ineligible for the protection of the First Amendment.”
“But we’re not talking about speech,” Guthrie said. “It’s very clear … It says he’s being charged with using illegal means to undermine elections by discounting legitimate votes. He says he can talk all day. He says this You can’t act like that.”
“Of course we can take action in the political arena,” Lauro replied. “For example, if someone goes against a law in Congress. You do a filibuster, right? That’s a political statement. That’s a political action. There’s nothing wrong with that. But what we have is , have something—”
“There’s nothing wrong with filibusters. There’s something wrong with sending fake electors,” Guthrie interjected.
“They weren’t fake electors. These were the by-elects that John Kennedy did in 1960. It was an exact protocol that had been followed before.”
“The situation is different, and the indictment alleges that some of these alternate electors were unaware of that, in your words. I thought the issue would only come up if there was some controversy,” Guthrie said.
“Undoubtedly, and what President Trump had, was the attorney’s actual opinion that President Trump’s request to Vice President Pence was perfectly legal and fully constitutional,” Lauro said.
“There were so many opinions, even from his own White House advisers, that it was illegal,” Guthrie replied.
“No, you have the right to trust and believe your lawyer’s advice. John Eastman, one of America’s leading constitutional scholars, told President Trump that this was a protocol to follow and that it was legal. That would rule out criminal intent,” Lauro retorted.
“That’s a lawyer. He got his White House advisers to say it’s not true and that this is an illegal theory,” Guthrie said. (Related: Awkward: Fox News host has to correct Trump lawyer twice on courtroom camera)
“You don’t have to count lawyers,” Lauro says. “But here’s where the problem starts. In a criminal case, the government must prove criminal intent and corrupt intent beyond reasonable doubt. He must prove beyond reasonable doubt that he did not believe the deeds to be true, and secondly, that he has wrongfully obstructed justice. They can’t prove it because everything they did was to get the truth, they filed a lawsuit, asked for a recount, asked Vice President Pence to suspend the count so they could go back to the states and re-inspect. please.”
The two then began sparring after Guthrie asked Trump’s legal team how much time they wanted before trial.
“What if he had three and a half years,” Lauro said. “Let’s be level, shall we? The bottom line is that there are 60 federal employees, 60 attorneys, all sorts of government employees working on this issue. And we got this indictment and they have 90 days. I’m hoping to get a trial soon.Does that sound like justice to you?
Gasly then sparred with Lauro over whether a speedy trial would be fair.
