Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson and his lawyer, Samuel H. Shamansky, are seeking court permission to subpoena former President Trump and several of his close associates to testify as witnesses at Thompson’s upcoming trial. Thompson’s charges include the felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding, which comes with a prison sentence of up to 20 years, if found guilty, although much shorter sentences are certainly possible. Shamansky said in a court filing that it “is anticipated that, when called as a witness, Donald J. Trump will testify that he and others orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and the validity of President Biden’s victory.” In other words, the point would be to pin blame on Trump and others for essentially setting Thompson up to commit criminal acts.
Shamansky added that it “will be established at trial that Mr. Trump and his conspirators engaged in a concerted effort to deceive the public, including [Thompson], into believing that American democracy was at stake if Congress was permitted to certify the election results.” It was unclear as of this weekend whether Shamansky would be able to get the permission that he was after to bring in Trump for testimony. For Trump to at least sit for a deposition in association with court proceedings isn’t unheard of; late last year, he was questioned as part of a case brought by protesters who’d been physically harassed by Trump’s security team outside of Trump Tower in 2015.
NEWS: Mike Pence: "President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone." Says "there's nothing more unAmerican" to have "any one person … choose the American president."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 4, 2022
As recapped by The New York Times, federal Judge Reggie Walton, who is handling the proceedings, “suggested that Mr. Shamansky could just as easily make his point by playing for the jury video or audio recordings of [Trump and his allies] speaking on Jan. 6 or in the days leading up to” the riot, but the lawyer argued in response that “live witnesses always played better in front of juries,” the Times adds. Shamansky told the publication that he was “unaware of any authority that undermines our position,” adding: “The Constitution guarantees and demands Trump’s appearance at trial.”
Pence in speech nearly 13 months after Jan 6 insurrection: “Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 4, 2022
The lawyer has already informed Walton that he intends to argue at Thompson’s trial that his client participated in the Capitol attack essentially under the counsel of a federal official — meaning, of course, then-President Trump, who (among other things) explicitly called on his supporters to show up in D.C. on January 6, when Congress was scheduled to certify the presidential election outcome. Trump also explicitly called for urgent action, saying in a speech in D.C. that day that his supporters must “fight.” He also pushed for a march to the Capitol. In the time since, Trump certainly hasn’t helped his case by repeatedly trying to essentially justify what happened that day.
NBC News confirms: Republican Jim Jordan spoke with Trump for 10 minutes by phone on the morning of Jan. 6, according to documents turned over to the Jan. 6 Committee by the National Archives. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 5, 2022
