Donald Trump’s legal team is considering a rash move that would put Republican members of Congress in his defense by questioning them about their own January 6 objections, DailyMail.com has learned.
The maneuver would see Trump’s legal team question lawmakers who cast votes objecting to the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, such as Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, as part of his federal criminal trial in Washington, DC.
It would be an attempt to convince potential jurors that Trump was not an outlier in encouraging election fraud because he represented a view widely held within his party.
‘They were essential for the recognition of objections, because you needed a representative from the Senate and House (to initiate a floor debate).
“So the senators’ objections were clearly important, very important,” a source familiar with the thinking of Trump’s legal team told DailyMail.com.
The move — which must be approved by a federal judge and could face objections from prosecutors — could allow the former president to cover up his own post-election behavior by having his lawyer question people like Hawley and Cruz.
The pair were among members of the Republican Party who were instrumental in setting up a political clash in Congress as Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
A source close to former President Donald Trump’s legal team says it is considering calling as witnesses lawmakers who repeated some of Trump’s election fraud claims that were thrown out of court. They could provide a defense by revealing the environment that was present during Trump’s election efforts
The effort would not involve questioning lawmakers about why they voted the way they did — a stance that could touch on issues of separation of powers and the Constitution’s “Speech or Debate” clause.
But it could explore “what objections you see through Y6 (Jan. 6) and to the extent elected officials have legitimate objections, it’s difficult to criticize the president for having the same or similar objections,” the source said. .
“So that would really be the theory and it would address the bona fide of having objections throughout the J6 period,” the source added.
If this continues, it could have political implications beyond the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., by providing a platform for Republicans facing their own re-elections and a chance to cement their loyalty to Trump, the man who leads all Republicans by a wide margin in the fight against the elections. presidential polls.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gestures to a crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. He and other lawmakers who have objected to electoral votes could be called as witnesses
Figures including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) explored ways to delay the January 6 election results. Cruz called for 10-day delay for emergency audit of ‘disputed states’
Trump’s team believes it can show that “in the political environment through January 6, elected officials had very good faith objections based on what they perceived as anomalies or illegal actions related to the election,” the source said.
Even some Republican officials who would later declare that Biden had won the election spoke publicly about allegations of fraud before January 6. (Former Trump AG Bill Barr, who told the House of Representatives on Jan. 6 that Trump lawyers’ fraud claims were “bull****,” had raised concerns about mail-in ballots before the election).
The tactic could include investigating efforts by a group of senators, including Hawley and Cruz, to rally fellow senators to delay the certification during Trump’s final days to further investigate claims of election fraud, even after they were overturned by a series of courts had been rejected.
Former Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro, who is currently on trial for defying a congressional subpoena, described the delaying tactic as the “Green Bay Sweep.”
The move to bring in elected Republican witnesses could well extend to the state legislative level — where many Republican lawmakers have also voted objections during the state certification process, raising some of the same fraud claims as members of Trump’s 2020 consultants who are now facing criminal charges. cost.
These claims went hand in hand with the “fake electors” scheme, in which states that voted for Biden sent a series of alternative Trump electors to Washington.
Trump’s defense must develop a legal strategy even as millions of documents turned over by prosecutors are turned over while he also faces charges in other jurisdictions, including Georgia, where the former president had his mugshot taken.
It comes in a blockbuster lawsuit in which US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has warned Trump’s lawyers that she wants to try to keep politics at bay – dismissing calls against Trump’s busy schedule and comparing him to a professional athlete who despite a competitive schedule must file charges.
She set a trial date for Trump for March 4, the day before Super Tuesday, prompting complaints from Trump’s lawyers about the need to sift through 12 million documents provided by the government through the discovery process amid a complex case with historical implications.
Lawmakers including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have fought efforts to be drawn into lawsuits related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Graham, who voted to certify votes from disputed states, fought efforts to compel his testimony in Georgia, where Trump and 18 other defendants are accused of a racketeering conspiracy linked to election efforts there.
The Supreme Court denied his attempt to block a subpoena, but that came after a federal judge ruled that there would be protection against his questioning about his legislative position, because of the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution.
Although elected lawmakers are involved in legal matters, the source said there is a good argument that they would have to comply with a subpoena to appear.
But unlike some of those other cases, there is reason to believe that Republicans in Congress would welcome the opportunity to make headlines and testify as witnesses for Trump. Party members supported Trump during two impeachment proceedings, tried to discredit the Jan. 6 House committee and then questioned President Biden and his family. Some House members with investigative panels say they plan to investigate Special Counsel Jack Smith.
“My sense is that many of these elected officials … would welcome the opportunity to testify on these important issues and confirm the reasons why they objected to certain aspects of the election,” the source said.
Their testimony would attempt to refute the narrative Smith outlined when he announced Trump’s indictment last month for conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to disenfranchise voters and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Smith called it an “unprecedented attack on the seat of American democracy” that was “fueled by lies” intended to hinder the counting of the election.
The government’s burden “is to show that the President has acted corruptly, which to some extent is not a clearly defined term but would give the impression that he was simply acting for an obstructive purpose that had nothing to do with any proper government function. And when elected officials say, ‘Hey, I was just doing my job. I raised these objections’… then it’s kind of hard to say that President Trump acted with corrupt intent,” the source added.
The DOJ could try to object, and Judge Chutkan could try to impose limits on the number of witnesses. At a hearing last month, she said both sides estimated a trial could take four to six weeks. Calling dozens of witnesses and bickering over securing their testimony could further delay the case or take up more court time.
The objectors were able to testify about their fraud claims, which were repeatedly rejected by courts, as well as state changes to election laws ahead of the election during the pandemic.