Pushing in federal court for the presiding judge to compel the Trump legal team to provide swift notice of any intentions to mount an advice-of-counsel defense at trial, the team of Special Counsel Jack Smith pointed to recent Georgia guilty pleas from lawyers in Trump’s circles as evidence there will clearly be a lot with which to grapple — necessitating a quicker start for the judicial process to stay on track.
Smith’s team made these arguments in recent filings in the federal criminal case that accuses former President Donald Trump of attempted election interference. The Trump team wants a significantly longer schedule than what Smith’s prosecutors are proposing. Under Trump’s approach, his team would only provide notice of intentions for an advice-of-counsel defense — not even the associated discovery materials — in January. Prosecutors want it in December.
“If the defendant notices such a defense, there is good reason to question its viability, especially because in the time since the Government filed its motion three charged co-defendant attorneys pleaded guilty to committing crimes in connection with the 2020 election,” the government said, adding: “At the very least, those guilty pleas highlight the complications that may arise if the defendant should assert an advice-of-counsel defense and underscore the need to resolve all issues well before the start of trial. If disclosure is delayed, it may result in disruption to the trial schedule.”
The filing also pushes back on an approach suggested in earlier filings from Trump of relying on an advice-of-counsel defense at trial without formalizing such an approach, meaning putting forward pieces of the substance while trying to avoid the requirements associated with more consistently sticking to that defense.
The potential defense idea would entail Trump leaning at trial on the claim he was acting simply in line with legal advice when perpetuating schemes to stay in power after the 2020 election. And the government says in their new filing that another factor that should spur a quicker formal notice from the Trump team of whether they’ll mount that defense is that their side, including Trump himself, has already made indications that point to it. Read the entire filing here.
