A former Trump White House lawyer took aim at former President Trump’s “aspirational” defense in his federal Jan. 6 case, where he is charged with four counts related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Current Trump attorney John Lauro has recently argued in the media that Trump “asked” former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results in an “aspirational” way.
CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Ty Cobb, who served in the White House for about 10 months beginning in July 2017, whether he thought that defense would work in court.
“Not at all,” Cobb said Monday. “I’m not aware of the aspirational defense or the free speech defense to a gang leader saying to two of his subordinates, ‘I need you to please rob a bank for me,’ and they do it. You know, that’s — that’s aspirational, but it leads to a crime. And that’s exactly what Trump did with Pence.”
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Cobb also said that while Lauro is a “respected” attorney and has a “good reputation,” most of Lauro’s talking points are “false.”
Trump was indicted last week on four federal charges in connection to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. According to the indictment, the former president asked Pence to halt Congress’s counting of Electoral College votes.
Lauro told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview that aired Sunday that Trump was exercising his First Amendment right by asking Pence to toss Electoral College votes from certain states, seeking to draw a line between “asking” and “directing” his vice president to take actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. It’s core free speech. The press should be defending free speech,” Lauro said.
Pence has maintained that what Trump asked him to do was “wrong” and that he had no power as vice president to overturn the 2020 election.