Former President Donald Trump attacked the nation’s capital as a “filthy and crime-ridden embarrassment” as the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 race seeks to move his federal trial on conspiracy and obstruction charges to a more politically friendly venue.
“NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL, OR EVEN CLOSE TO A FAIR TRIAL, IN WASHINGTON, D.C.,” Trump wrote in an all-capital-letters post on Truth Social, his social media site. He called for a U.S. takeover of the city — which has limited home-rule powers under congressional supervision — a move he said would be unpopular with potential jurors.
In a separate post, Trump said he will be asking for recusal of the judge on the case “on very powerful grounds,” without citing any evidence. He said Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, couldn’t be fair.
Trump is accused in an indictment handed down last week in Washington of knowingly spreading lies about the 2020 election being rigged to undermine faith in the vote and remain in power. He’s fighting separate criminal prosecutions in New York and Florida — and faces possible charges in Georgia — all while pushing ahead with his presidential campaign.
Trump’s broadsides came as his Tampa lawyer made the rounds of Sunday television news shows, contending that the former president’s actions leading up to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were protected by First Amendment protections of free speech.
Attorney John Lauro said Trump would “absolutely” seek a change of venue. “We would like a diverse venue, a diverse jury that reflects the characteristics of the American people,” he said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “I think West Virginia would be an excellent venue to try this case.”
Trump won 69% of the vote in West Virginia in 2020, second only to Wyoming. He won 5% of the vote in the District of Columbia.
Lauro also said the former president never asked Mike Pence to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election, but only wanted the former vice president to “pause” the certification of votes to allow states to investigate his claims of election fraud. Those baseless claims had already been rejected by numerous courts.
“The ultimate ask of Vice President Pence was to pause the counts and allow the states to weigh in,” Lauro said. He added that Trump was convinced there were irregularities in the election that needed to be investigated by state authorities before the election could be certified.
Pence, who like Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, flatly rejected that account during his own interview Sunday, saying Trump seemed “convinced” as early as December that Pence had the right to reject or return votes and that on Jan. 5, Trump’s attorneys told him “‘We want you to reject votes outright.”
“They were asking me to overturn the election. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Pence’s role in certifying Joe Biden’s win over Trump in the 2020 election makes him a central figure in the case. Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general also had said there were was no credible evidence the election was tainted.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Lauro said Pence’s testimony will show Trump believed the election was rigged and that he was listening to the advice of his attorneys when he sought to delay the certification. Pence, who appeared before the grand jury that indicted Trump, said he will comply with the law if asked to testify.
“I cannot wait until I have the opportunity to cross examine Mr. Pence,” Lauro said. “He will completely eliminate any doubt that President Trump firmly believed that the election irregularities had led to an inappropriate result.”
Lauro said Trump’s defense team will seek to move the case from Washington because it wants a more diverse jury. He said he would support televising the trial, and dismissed speculation that it could wrap up before the 2024 election.
“In 40 years of practicing law, on a case of this magnitude, I’ve not known a single case to go to trial before two to three years,” Lauro said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Responding to questions about whether Trump can get a fair trial in the nation’s capital, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor and a Republican, said he can.
“Yes, I believe jurors can be fair. I believe in the American people,” Christie said Sunday on CNN.
Trump’s legal team has until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the prosecution’s request for a protective order limiting Trump’s ability to publicly disclose information about the case. The decision is up to Judge Chutkan.
Protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it’s “particularly important in this case” because Trump has posted on social media about “witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”
Prosecutors pointed specifically to a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform from Friday in which Trump wrote, in all capital letters, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”
