Former President Donald Trump just “kneecapped” his own defense in Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith‘s federal election subversion case against him, ex-prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Friday.
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, faces four felony counts in the DOJ’s case against him in Washington, D.C., after he allegedly tried to overturn Joe Biden‘s 2020 election victory in the wake of his loss, which culminated in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
On that day, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election win. The riot erupted following repeated claims from Trump that the election was stolen via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of this. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the case is politically motivated against him.
Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, said in a YouTube video on Friday that Trump “kneecapped his January 6 defense” with a new Gutfeld! interview on Fox News.
In his YouTube video, Kirschner referenced a Washington Post article published on Thursday titled, “With one exaggerated anecdote, Trump kneecaps his Jan. 6 defense.”
The article details a conversation Trump had with late-night talk show host Greg Gutfeld on Wednesday in which the former president told a story about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, asking for his help as the then-president.
“You know, he called up years ago,” Trump said on Gutfeld!, referring to Walz.
Trump said that the Minnesota governor’s mansion was swarmed by protesters and Walz was looking for his help.
“‘My house is being surrounded by people with American flags,'” Trump claimed Walz said. “I said, ‘Is that a good thing or a bad thing?’ He said, ‘I think they’re going to attack me.'”
Trump said that “this was during the riots and everything.” It seemed that he was talking about the civil rights protests that broke out in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer, but Walz told Politico in 2021 that he called the White House in April 2020 to ask for help during protests against COVID-19 restrictions.
Trump said the protestors were supporters of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, “They were MAGA people, you know, they like the American flag, all right? And they also had Trump [flags].”
Trump said he put out a statement on Twitter, now X, after Walz asked him to tell people that he was their friend.
The then-president told his Twitter followers: “‘He’s a good man, the governor. He’s on our side,'” Trump said on Gutfeld!
“I didn’t know him, but I didn’t want him to get hurt,” Trump said. “And everybody put down their flags and they left.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, and the Harris-Walz campaign via email for comment on Saturday morning.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas on September 13. Trump just “kneecapped” his own defense in Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election subversion case against him, ex-prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Friday.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Trump ‘Badly Damaged His Own Defense’
On Friday, Kirschner said in reaction to the Washington Post article, “You see how he kneecapped, how he undercut, how he badly damaged his own defense?”
He added: “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.”
“Let’s see, when was there another incident when an angry mob was attacking a governmental building, carrying American flags and MAGA flags? Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. January 6th,” Kirschner said.
Kirschner said that Trump knew he had the power to protect his vice president at the time, Mike Pence, but instead sent out a tweet, which read, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” referring to Pence’s refusal to block the verification of Biden’s election win as the president of the Senate.
Kirschner added: “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” on that day in 2021. “Donald Trump knew he had the power to stop what was going on at the Capitol on January 6. And instead, he fanned the flames,” the legal analyst said.
Trump did not ask his supporters to leave the Capitol until hours into the riot, which started around 1:45 p.m. that day and at 4:17 p.m. Trump posted a video on social media telling rioters, “You have to go home now.”
The ex-prosecutor said that Trump’s anecdote about Walz can be used against him in court and even if Trump says that his anecdote was just a story and the events in it didn’t actually happen, “then what he’s 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.
Newsweek also reached out to Kirschner via text message for comment on Saturday morning.
