Members of the Proud Boys on trial for their alleged roles inciting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol are launching a long-shot bid to get Donald Trump to testify.
“At all times relevant, Trump was president of the United States, and it’s the government’s obligation to produce him,” attorney Norm Pattis said in court Thursday.
Attorneys for the five men on trial – Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Joseph Biggs – have argued that it was Mr Trump who lit the spark of the January 6 conspiracy, not them.
“President Trump told these people that the election was stolen,” defense attorney Sabino Jauregui has previously said over the course of the trial, which began in January. “Trump told them to go there on January 6th, and it was Trump who in his speech on January 6th unleashed that mob over there at the Capitol.”
The Independent has contacted Mr Trump for comment.
Observers say it’s unlikely the former president will end up actually giving testimony, given his ability to fight a subpoena, claim executive privilege, or plead the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, given the ongoing federal investigation into January 6.
“We’re not going to be seeing testimony from the former president,” Duke University law professor Lisa Kern Griffin told the Washington Post on Thursday.
Earlier this month, evidence was presented during the trial showing the Proud Boys appearing to take cues from Mr Trump in the run-up to January 6.
In private messages, Mr Biggs reacted to Donald Trump telling the group during a presidential debate to “stand back and stand by.”
“Trump basically said to go f*** them up,” Mr Biggs said in a social media message. “This makes me so happy.”
“Trumps calling the troops in on the 6th,” he said in another message shown to the court.
Last year, another January 6 defendant named Dustin Thompson sought to compel testimony from Mr Trump, an attempt that was shot down and failed to prevent the Ohio exterminator from being sent to three years in prison.
The January 6 committee in Congress also failed to get direct testimony from Donald Trump, dropping its subpoena fight once Republicans retook the House.
