Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. said Donald Trump undermined his own defense in the federal election subversion case citing comments the former president made in a recent interview.
On Jan. 6, 2021 a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
The insurrection came after weeks of the former president and his allies telling their supporters that widespread voter fraud cost Trump the election even though there is there no evidence to support that claim.
Trump faces four felony counts related to his attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election. He has argued that he did nothing wrong and that the charges against him are politically motivated.
But, Kirschner said Trump undercut his defense in an interview with late-night talk show host Greg Gutfeld on Wednesday by claiming that he called off a mob of his supporters that surrounded the Minnesota governor’s mansion during Black Lives Matter protests in the state following the police killing of George Floyd.
Trump claimed that Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, called him during the protest seeking his help because the governor’s mansion was “‘surrounded by people with American flags,'” and that he feared they would attack him, the former president said Walz told him.
“They were MAGA people, you know, they like the American flag, all right? And they also had Trump [flags],” Trump said, adding that he sent out a statement on Twitter at the time saying “‘He’s a good man, the governor. He’s on our side.”
Trump claimed that after he sent the tweet “everybody put down their flags and they left.”
In a YouTube video Friday Kirschner said “kneecapped,” “undercut” and “badly damaged” his own defense.
“Donald Trump told a story making it clear that he knew he possessed the power to stop it, an ongoing attack by his MAGA supporters and he stopped it. Instantly,” he added.
Trump knew he had the power to protect then-Vice President Mike Pence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Kirschner said, but instead “fanned the flames” by sending out a tweet, which read, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
“The subtext to that tweet was—get him. And get him, [the January 6 rioters] tried to do. They hunted for Mike Pence. Chants of ‘Hang Mike Pence’ erupted” he said. “Donald Trump knew he had the power to stop what was going on at the Capitol on January 6.”
Even though Trump’s anecdote about Walz calling him up for help during BLM protests is a lie, Kirschner said prosecutors can still use it in their case against the former president.
What he is “communicating to the jury is, ‘well, I’m not a criminal. I’m just a great big liar.”
This type of explanation “typically doesn’t play well with juries,” Kirschner said.
Trump did end up sending a tweet urging his supporters to leave the Capitol but that was nearly three hours after the riot started.
