John Lauro, attorney for former President Donald Trump, said that the First Amendment is “under assault” after his client was indicted on four felony charges in connection with his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
“This is unprecedented,” Mr. Lauro added. “For the first time in American history, a former president is being prosecuted by a political opponent, who wields the power of the criminal justice system, for what he believed in and the policies and the political speech that he carried out as president.”
Mr. Lauro added that the indictment has far-reaching consequences.
“It affects not just Donald Trump; it affects every American who now realizes that the First Amendment is under assault. It’s under attack by the Biden administration.”
Indictment
In response to the writing in the indictment, Mr. Lauro said he would like the prosecutors “to try to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump believed that these allegations were false.”“What did he see in real-time? He saw changes in election procedure in the middle of the game being carried out by … people at the state level, election officials, but not the state legislatures,” Mr. Lauro continued.
“He had an advice of counsel, a very detailed memorandum from a constitutional expert who said: ‘Mr. President, these states are complaining about what happened. You, as the executive, have the ability to ask Vice President [Mike] Pence to pause the vote on January 6, have these states audit and recertify, and, that way, we know ultimately who won the election.’”
Mr. Lauro added: “And that’s the only thing that President Trump suggested. There’s nothing unlawful about that. He was entitled to do that, as the chief executive officer carrying out the laws, and nothing about that was obstructive.”
The indictment also alleges that Mr. Trump “attempted to exploit the violence and chaos” at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by calling lawmakers that evening and trying to convince them to “delay the certification.”
“It was quite interesting that Mr. Smith talked about the violence on Capitol Hill. He’s not being charged with that. There’s no allegation that President Trump incited any violence or did anything to cause any violence,” Mr. Lauro said.
“It was done at a time when we’re in the middle of a political campaign to censor one political candidate who’s getting his message out,” Mr. Lauro said.
