Former President Donald Trump just “derailed” his own defense in the federal election subversion case brought against him by DOJ special counsel Jack Smith, former prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said Friday.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, faces four felony counts in the Justice Department’s case against him in Washington, D.C., after he allegedly tried to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory following his defeat, which culminated in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
That day, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory. The riot broke out after Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was stolen through widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of this. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has claimed that the case against him is politically motivated.
Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, said in a YouTube video Friday that Trump “derailed his January 6 defense” with a new Gutfeld! interview on Fox News.
In his YouTube video, Kirschner referred to a Washington Post article published Thursday titled “With an exaggerated anecdote, Trump derails his defense of January 6.”
The article details a conversation Trump had with late-night talk show host Greg Gutfeld on Wednesday, during which the former president told a story about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, asking for his help as then-president.
“You know, he called years ago,” Trump said on Gutfeld!referring to Walz.
Trump said the Minnesota governor’s mansion had been invaded by protesters and Walz was seeking his help.
“My house is surrounded by people with American flags,” Mr. Walz said, according to Trump. “I asked, ‘Is this a good thing or a bad thing?’ He said, ‘I think they’re going to attack me.’”
Trump said “it was during the riots and all that.” It sounded like he was talking about the civil rights protests that erupted in the summer of 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a Minneapolis police officer, but Walz told Politico in 2021 that he called the White House in April 2020 to ask for help during protests against COVID-19 restrictions.
Trump said the protesters were supporters of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, “They were MAGA people, you know, they love the American flag, okay? And they had Trump too.” [flags]” . “
Trump said he issued a statement on Twitter, now X, after Walz asked him to tell people he was their friend.
The then-president told his Twitter followers: “He’s a good man, the governor. He’s on our side,” Trump said on Twitter. Gutfeld!
“I didn’t know him, but I didn’t want him to get hurt,” Trump said. “And everybody put down their flags and left.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump communications director Steven Cheung and the Harris-Walz campaign via email for comment Saturday morning.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Trump has “seriously damaged his own defense”
On Friday, Kirschner said in response to the Washington Post article, “You see how he hit the knees, how he undermined, how he seriously damaged his own defense?”
He added: “Donald Trump told a story that made it clear he knew he had the power to stop this ongoing attack by his MAGA supporters,” and “he stopped it. Instantly.”
“Let’s see, when was there another incident where an angry mob attacked a government building, carrying American flags and MAGA flags? Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. January 6th,” Kirschner said.
Kirschner said Trump knew he had the power to protect his then-vice president, Mike Pence, but instead sent a tweet that said, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” referring to Pence’s refusal to block the Senate verification of Biden’s election victory as president.
Kirschner added: “The subtext of that tweet was: Get him. And get him, [the January 6 rioters] “They tried to do that. They hunted down Mike Pence. There were chants of ‘Hang Mike Pence’ that went up” that day in 2021. “Donald Trump knew he had the power to stop what was happening at the Capitol on January 6th. And instead he fanned the flames,” the legal analyst said.
Trump did not ask his supporters to leave the Capitol until several hours after the riot began, which began around 1:45 p.m. that day, and at 4:17 p.m., Trump posted a video on social media telling the rioters, “You need to go home now.”
The former prosecutor said Trump’s anecdote about Walz could be used against him in court and that even if Trump says his anecdote was just a story and that the events in it didn’t actually happen, “then what he’s communicating to the jury is, ‘Well, I’m not a criminal. I’m just a big liar.'” That type of explanation “doesn’t usually go over well with juries,” Kirschner said.
Newsweek I also reached out to Kirschner via text message for comment Saturday morning.
