A man charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack plans to call Former President Donald Trump as a witness to testify at his trial later this year.
According to WUSA9, Samuel Shamansky, attorney for Jan. 6 defendant Dustin Thompson filed a motion on Friday on behalf of his client asking the court to allow them to subpoena Trump as a witness in Thompson’s April trial. Shamansky argued that the former president authorized rioters, including his client, to enter the Capitol.
“It is anticipated that, when called as a witness, Donald J. Trump will testify that he and others orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and the validity of President Biden’s victory,” Shamansky wrote, according to court filings. “Moreover, it will be established at trial that Mr. Trump and his conspirators engaged in a concerted effort to deceive the public, including Defendant, into believing that American democracy was at stake if Congress was permitted to certify the election results.”
Shamansky said if Trump was issued a subpoena to testify, his testimony would show that he aimed to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election by any means necessary including authorizing his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
“Defendant submits that the testimony of Mr. Trump and his conspirators will establish that they were determined, by any means necessary, to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional mandate to certify the election results,” Shamansky wrote. “In order to accomplish that goal, the conspirators Defendant now seeks to subpoena engaged in a concerted effort to organize, encourage, and direct rally participants to storm the Capitol, enter the grounds, ‘fight like hell,’ and ‘engage in trial by combat.’”
The attorney said they would also like to subpoena Trump’s co-conspirators who aided efforts to overturn the election including Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, conservative lawyers John Eastman and Sidney Powell.
Thompson is the first Capitol riot defendant to ask a judge for permission to subpoena Donald Trump and he’ll likely face an uphill battle. Several other Capitol riot defendants have blame the former president for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6. However, some judges are not convinced by that argument.
Also, if the judge allows Thompson’s attorney to subpoena Trump, the former president will likely fight it in court. Shamansky is fully aware of this possibility.
“If and when Judge Walton approves our issues for a subpoena, we fully expect Trump and his co-conspirators to utilize every legal trick in the book to avoid being placed under oath,” he said.
Thompson was arrested in on Jan. 25, 2021 in Ohio and charged with violent entry, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. He is also charged with theft of government property after he stole a coat rack from the Capitol and ran from police.
