Lawyers for former US President Donald Trump believe he acted “in good faith” in challenging the results of the 2020 election, demanding prosecutors turn over any evidence related to voting irregularities and possible foreign interference.
A defense motion, filed Monday in federal court in Washington and cited by the Associated Press news agency, claims that Trump was not required to accept the rulings of government officials, who repeatedly failed to find widespread fraud. In the elections.
The defense raises the possibility that foreign elements may have influenced the election and alleges that federal authorities gave “false assurances” to the public about the security of the election, which “exceeded” what the government actually knew.
“It was not unreasonable at the time, and certainly not criminal, for President Trump to disagree with officials now favored by the prosecution and instead rely on the independent judgment of the American people,” the lawyers wrote.
The filing of this motion is the clearest demonstration that Trump’s lawyers hope to sow doubt in a jury about the legitimacy of the election, or at least demonstrate that their skepticism was justified and not motivated by criminal intent.
Lawyers are trying to force prosecutor Jack Smith’s team to produce information they say could help the defense, including the “impact of foreign influence” and “actual and attempted election infrastructure deals,” as well as evidence of a possible “political bias,” which could have shaped the community’s assessment of the election.
Courts across the country determined there was no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome, and the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity department called it “the most secure in American history.”
Trump was charged in early August with four counts of conspiracy to try to overturn the results of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The federal election subversion case is one of four criminal cases against Trump in this case being heard in a Washington DC court.
Special prosecutor Smith’s team filed a separate federal case, accusing him of illegally retaining confidential documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and refusing to return them.
The trial of this case is scheduled for May 20 next year.
Trump also faces cases in state courts in New York and Georgia.
Manhattan prosecutors accuse him of falsifying business records in a case involving paying a porn actress to obtain her silence in an extramarital affair.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, charge Trump and 18 others with conspiracy to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.
Trump appeared in a Georgia jail in mid-November in connection with this case, posing for the first mugshot of a former US president in US history.
Trump maintains his innocence of all charges, saying the investigations are politically motivated and an attempt to interfere to prevent him from returning to the White House.
Source: TSF
