Donald Trump’s attorney has suggested that Mike Pence could help his former boss fight off the 2020 election-related criminal conspiracy charges against Trump, claiming that the former vice-president would be the “best witness” for the defence.
In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, attorney John Lauro played down differences between the former president and Pence’s accounts of what happened in the run up to the 6 January 2021 certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, whose supporters attacked the US Capitol that day.
Asked on Face the Nation whether he feared that Pence would be called as a prosecution witness in the case, Lauro said: “No, no in fact, the vice-president will be our best witness.
“There was a constitutional disagreement between the vice-president [Pence] and president Trump, but the bottom line is never, never in our country’s history, as those kinds of disagreements have been prosecuted criminally. It’s unheard of.”
Earlier on Sunday, Pence – who is running against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – told CBS that he had “no plans” to testify for the prosecution. But he did not rule it out. In response to Lauro’s assertion last week that all Trump did was ask him to pause the certification, Pence said: “That’s not what happened.”
Trump, the leading Republican contender in the 2024 presidential race, last week pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election by conspiring to block Congress from confirming Biden victory over him. He also pleaded not guilty to charges that he obstructed the certification by directing his supporters to descend on the Capitol on the day of the January 6 attack.
He is also accused of – and has pleaded not guilty to – scheming to disrupt the election process and deprive Americans of their right to have their votes counted.
Lauro slammed the indictment as politically motivated and full of holes.
“This is what’s called a Swiss cheese indictment – so many holes that we’re going to be identifying,” Lauro said.
Lauro suggested that his side would argue that Trump’s actions were protected by his constitutional right to free speech as well as presidential immunity.
Taking aim at Biden, the Democratic incumbent, Lauro added: “This is the first time in history that a sitting president has used his justice department to go after a political opponent to knock him out of a race that creates grave constitutional problems.”
Lauro confirmed that he planned to file a motion to dismiss the conspiracy charges, as well as another to transfer the case from Washington DC’s federal courthouse to one in West Virginia, a state where Trump won 69% of the votes in 2020, his second largest margin of victory in a state after Wyoming.
“We would like a diverse venue and diverse jury to have an expectation that will reflect the characteristics of the American people,” he said. “I think West Virginia would be an excellent venue.”
On Sunday, Trump took to the rightwing social media platform Truth Social to claim – again and without evidence – that he would not get a fair trial in Washington DC. He has repeatedly insulted the nation’s capital by calling it a swamp of radical liberals.
Lauro was brought on to Trump’s legal team in mid-July. He has defended a string of controversial clients who include Dewayne Allen Levesque – manager of the Pink Pony nightclub in Florida who was acquitted of charges of racketeering, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting prostitution – and the disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who admitted to taking payoffs from bookies in exchange for a one-year, three-month prison sentence.
Trump will not accept a plea deal in the criminal conspiracy charges, Lauro told CBS.
The charges which Lauro discussed Sunday are contained in one of three criminal indictments pending against the former president.
He is also facing New York state charges related to hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels. And he also faces a separate federal indictment pertaining to his allegedly illegal hoarding of government secrets at his Florida resort after his presidency.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the two other cases against him as well.
Shortly after Lauro made his remarks Sunday to CBS, the news network released a poll showing that a little more than half of Americans believe Trump tried to stay in office after losing to Biden through illegal and unconstitutional means. And most Americans see the charges pursued against Trump as attempts to defend democracy and uphold the rule of law, despite the former president’s insistence that he is being politically persecuted.
