During a new interview on CNN, lawyer Ty Cobb — who served for a time in the Trump administration — criticized some of the recent arguments from John Lauro, an attorney now representing former President Donald Trump in the ex-commander-in-chief’s criminal case that deals with his attempts to stay in power in 2020.
Lauro claimed in an interview for CNN that Trump had simply been aspiring for then-Vice President Mike Pence to take action in pushing for the allegedly illegal conspiracy to subvert the post-election process that has provided the basis of these charges. Lauro attempted to distinguish between the allegedly “aspirational” nature of what Trump was doing and the work that would have been needed to effectuate the alleged conspiracies — ploys to which Lauro has himself partially admitted, saying the Trump team had aimed for a delay before the final certification by Congress of the 2020 election results.
“I’m not aware of the aspirational defense,” Cobb said. “Or the free speech defense to a gang leader saying to two of his subordinates, ‘I need you two to please rob a bank for me,’ and they do it — that’s aspirational, but it leads to a crime, and that’s exactly what Trump did with Pence.”
Lauro also faced criticism during the interview itself, as host Dana Bash ripped the idea that the transfer of power seen after the last election had, in fact, been peaceful, as Lauro insisted. Lauro was ignoring the basic realities of what had happened on and around January 6, Bash suggested. Relatedly, those who still insist that no charges of insurrection have emerged from what took place are not accurately representing the facts. Time and again, extremist leaders have been charged with — and pleaded guilty to or been convicted of — seditious conspiracy. The violence they planned and perpetrated helped spark the historic authorizations for deployment of tens of thousands of National Guard troops before Biden’s actual inauguration.
Now at issue in the Trump criminal proceedings is whether the ex-president will be hit with a protective order formally blocking some of his comments. Watch Cobb’s interview in the video posted by CNN below:
