David Leonhardt, in The Morning report for the NY times, prefaces an op ed by conservative Trump critic, David French, in today’s paper with some thoughts of his own. I resonate with these well-balanced thoughts as an attorney. Regardless of political leanings or morality, we should understand the legal implications and appreciate the legal lay of the land.
Leonhardt cuts through the hype and the clickbait headlines. “Shocking as it was,” Leonhardt says, “Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 did not violate any laws in obvious ways.” He didn’t actually tell anyone to riot, or to storm the Capitol, or to attack Congress. He even said at one point that “he knew the protesters would behave ‘peacefully and patriotically,’” observes Leonhardt.
Like it or not, Donald Trump says some wildly irresponsible things, but he is clever enough to know (it seems) not to cross the line. He seems to have a knack for teetering dangerously close to the lines without actually stepping over them. ( am not commending him to say that.)
Leornhardt observes that no federal law forbids anyone from trying to overturn the results of an election. The 2000 election is a case in point. Al Gore was convinced that improprieties took place in Florida, and he demanded a recount. Gore may have done that in a much more deferential, dignified and diplomatic way, but maintaining that some impropriety took place, no matter how crudely, childishly, and obnoxiously done, is not a crime.
We need to understand these things to understand the most recent indictment. Trump is not charged with a crime involving the overturning of an election, because attempts to overturn an election, by themselves, are not criminal. Freedom of speech and laws providing access to justice allow American people to make claims. Even outrageous ones.
The latest indictment focuses on falsehoods and intentions: the indictment, basically says, “These claims were false, and [Donald Trump] knew that they were false.” In other words, the indictment is based on fraud, which is knowingly making a false claim with the intention to deceive.
As an attorney, I can tell you that trying to prove what someone intended is no small task. It may seem obvious at first blush, but how do you prove intention absent an express admission by Trump that he knew the claims were false? Even Trump may not be that stupid.
We might conceive of a kind of braggadocio that includes boasting that he knew what he was saying was false, but even that might be beyond Donald Trump. At the very least, we have no public statement from Trump that he knew the claims were false.
The fact that advisors told Trump there was no basis in fact to the claims he was making doesn’t really help us if Trump didn’t believe his advisors. If Trump thought he knew better than them. Trump’s belief that the election was “stolen” was spurious and rested on the thinnest of evidence, but fraud requires more than mere belief that is contrary to the evidence.
Fraud requires actual knowledge of the falsehood of a statement and an intention to deceive. As Leonhardt puts it, “[T]here is no testimony or recording in which Trump himself acknowledges the reality of his election loss,” and this makes fraud and conspiracy charges appear to be very difficult to prove.
In my opinion, Trump is almost certain to be successful in defending these charges, unless the prosecutors have evidence of private statements made by Trump in which he acknowledges the falsehood of the statements he made, and he expresses an intention to deceive the American people. Short of that kind of evidence, this indictment may be chasing after the wind.
I am hopeful the prosecutors do have that kind of evidence. Most objective Americans believe that Trump attempted to subvert “the very foundation of democracy” knowingly (or wantonly), even if it can’t be proven.
The risk of this indictment is that Trump defends the charges successfully. We all know that a hung jury or a not guilty determination in a criminal case doesn’t mean that a crime wasn’t committed; it just means the prosecutors could not prove their case. In this case, however, failure will fuel Trump and his supporters with legal vindication, and that is dangerous.
Continue reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.