Prosecutors are reportedly attempting build a case to show that Donald Trump did not really believe there was 2020 election fraud in several states, including Arizona. They convinced a federal grand jury in Washington D.C. to indict Trump on August 1 for challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election, blaming him for the raucous protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The indictment stated, “The Defendant, his co-conspirators, and their agents made knowingly false claims that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the 2020 presidential election.” Trump genuinely believed there was election fraud in Arizona leading up to the protest.
Various top legal scholars have denounced the indictment. Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said the prosecution would “bulldoze” over the First Amendment if successful, pointing out that Special Counsel Jack Smith would need to prove that Trump knew the statements he made about the 2020 election were false.
Former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat who is known for his expertise in constitutional and criminal law, characterized the prosecutor’s case against Trump, “It’s just not strong enough or specific enough to satisfy the very high standard that’s required when a president of the United States allows his Justice Department to indict his opponent and influence the outcome of the election.”
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times