Hail Mary, Full Of Grace

Trump Touts Intel Community He’s Long Besmirched In Bid To Defend Jan. 6 Charges https://t.co/wYM8HoXQnl via @TPM

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 29, 2023

 The “They Lied More Than I Did!” Defense:

Trump also wants to counter arguments that his claims to have actually won the 2020 election but for massive, never-found fraud somehow contributed to mistrust in American elections. In fact, Trump attorneys wrote, the former president wants evidence about 2016 Russian interference “to demonstrate to the jury that he did not create or cause the environment that the prosecution seeks to blame him for.”

The “I Know You Are, But What Am I?” Defense:

Trump’s lawyers wrote elsewhere in the filing that the 2016 interference had “motivated” Trump to make extensive policy changes aimed at “foreign influence and cyber risks,” and “to be skeptical of claims about the absence of foreign influence in the 2020 election.” 

In 2020, Trump’s allies went wild with claims of foreign interference. Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows ordered DOJ officials to examine the ItalyGate theory, which posits that an Italian defense contractor used military satellites to zap the election away from Trump. At a now-infamous November 2020 press conference, Rudy Giuliani appeared alongside Sidney Powell as she attributed Trump’s loss to a Venezuelan conspiracy helmed by deceased communist Hugo Chavez.

One pauses to note no policy changes enacted by Trump justify his actions on January 6th, or actions leading up to that date. In fact, this is all just creating a record in appeal, as it is unlikely this evidence will be ordered discoverable, survive a limine hearing, or get before the jury. If it exists at all.

They got nuthin’. This is all trying to make the ketchup spaghetti stick to the wall.