Jack Smith just seized on the Fulton County plea deals
Various legal experts have pointed out that Donald Trump’s best shot at a trial defense in his January 6th criminal case in federal court is to argue that he was innocently acting on bad advice from his lawyers when he tried to overthrow the government. No one thinks this defense is actually going to work. It’s just that Trump is that thoroughly out of good options. And now that door has closed further, thanks to another criminal case against Trump.
Earlier this month Jack Smith preemptively made a filing spelling out that if Trump were to try an “advice of counsel” defense, he’d be waiving attorney-client privilege with every attorney who supposedly gave him the bad advice. That would be basically everyone who represented him circa 2020. As if that weren’t bad enough, three of Trump’s former attorneys just cut cooperating plea deals against him in the separate Fulton County criminal case.
Accordingly, Jack Smith made a court filing last night, seizing upon these three plea deals. Smith pointed out that it would now be immensely complicated for Trump to mount an “advice of counsel” defense, given how many of his legal counselors are now witnesses against him. This only serves to increase the odds that Judge Chutkan ends up forcing Trump to decide well before trial whether or not he’s going to attempt an “advice of counsel” defense. This will ultimately narrow Trump’s options by the time he gets to trial.
Of course the elephant in the room is that the three attorneys who just flipped on Donald Trump in the Fulton County case are now also more or less locked into cutting separate plea deals with Jack Smith. So by the time Trump gets to his federal criminal trial, not only will he be unable to rely on an “advice of counsel” defense, his “counsel” will be testifying about the crimes that Trump plotted with them.
