(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump’s recent change in how he characterizes the 2020 election result may be good politics, but it’s a bad legal strategy, according to one former Justice Department official.
“We got the most votes of anybody — of any sitting president in history, and he beat us by a whisker,” Trump said Aug 30. He has made similar comments in other appearances in the past few days.
“It was probably politically smart for Trump to admit he lost the election, but legally, that sure could have consequences,” said Tom Dupree, who was a deputy assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration.
“The whole thrust of (Special Counsel) Jack Smith’s indictment is Trump was trying to defraud and to cheat and to steal an election he didn’t win. If he’s now admitting (that) maybe he actually knew all along that he lost, well, he’s not really defending the accuracy of the vote. He really was trying to steal something.”
Smith filed a new indictment of Trump last month, reflecting the Supreme Court ruling that said a president is immune for official acts in office. The new indictment accuses Trump of crimes allegedly committed as a candidate and private citizen, not as president.
They include: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Dupree also told NewsNation’s “On Balance” he will be interested to see what evidence Smith might choose to release before a trial.
“I suspect we’ll see things like grand jury testimony, things that witnesses have said that haven’t yet been put in the public record about what the former president was thinking (and) what he was doing behind the scenes on those days.”
Thursday’s hearing in Washington, which set a timeline for pre-trial filings, makes it nearly impossible that a trial would begin before Election Day.
“This is probably about as close as they’re going to get,” Dupree said.
