Trump Goes After His Republican Predecessors to Save Himself

Donald Trump's lawyers attacked his Republican predecessors in order to save the former president in a court filing on Thursday in his federal January 6 case.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Trump in August on four criminal counts in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a group of his supporters violently protested the election results in a failed effort to block congressional certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. He has claimed, without evidence, the election was stolen via widespread voter fraud.

Prosecutors also investigated Trump and his allies' alleged efforts to submit false slates of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College from seven key states that he narrowly lost in 2020. Trump maintains his innocence in the case, accusing prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes. He has pleaded not guilty, as well as in the other three indictments he is currently facing.

Trump's attorneys offered their latest defense of Trump in a filing Thursday, arguing the former president is being treated differently than past presidents accused of illegal conduct.

"American history teems with situations where the opposing party vigorously
contended that a sitting President acted criminally in the exercise of his official responsibilities. Yet, when the opposing party took power, none of these Presidents was ever prosecuted, until 2023," the filing reads.

Trump's attorneys continued to cite several examples of presidents evading prosecution for what some viewed as illegal acts, naming several Republican presidents by name.

For instance, they pointed to the former President Richard Nixon's actions in the "Saturday Night Massacre," when he asked three DOJ officials to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, or when former President George W. Bush's critics accused him of lying to Congress to "induce the Iraq War on false allegedly pretenses."

The filing also said former President Barack Obama was not prosecuted for authorizing a drone strike that killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. Critics have said the strike constitutes an extrajudicial killing, violating his due process, but government officials argued al-Awlaki's alleged ties to terror groups made him a legitimate war target. A drone strike also killed his 16-year-old son two weeks later.

"Though many at the time believed these official actions were criminal, and their political opponents eventually took power in every case, none of these Presidents were ever charged with any crime for official acts. Our history thus reflects a strong tradition against prosecuting Presidents for their official acts," the former president's attorneys wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.

The filing is the latest attempt from Trump's attorneys to argue that he is facing a double standard than other former presidents. They have argued that his prosecutions are politically motivated as he remains the frontrunner to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge overseeing the January 6 case, has set the trial for March 4, 2024. His attorneys have brought several recent motions aimed at getting the case dismissed, but legal experts remain skeptical they will be able to do so.