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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Fact check: Trump’s misleading claim about the judge and ‘advice of | |
counsel’ | |
By Daniel Dale, CNN | |
Updated: | |
2:57 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
continued on Tuesday to criticize the judge presiding over his | |
Manhattan criminal trial, Juan Merchan, this time complaining that | |
Merchan was not allowing him to invoke the advice he claims he was | |
given by lawyers. Criminal defendants sometimes employ an “ to try | |
to demonstrate that they had not intended to break the law. | |
“Here, I’m not even allowed to say ‘advice of counsel.’ This is | |
a new one to me, ‘advice of counsel,’” Trump told reporters | |
outside the courtroom. “When you have a lawyer and the lawyer does | |
something or advises you on something, you say ‘advice of counsel.’ | |
He said you’re not allowed to say that.” | |
Facts First: Trump’s claim is misleading. He failed to mention that | |
the reason Merchan will not allow Trump’s legal team to invoke | |
“advice of counsel” during the trial is that, when Trump was asked | |
before the trial whether he would be using an “advice of counsel” | |
defense, . | |
An “advice of counsel” defense . Trump’s lawyers told Merchan | |
before the trial that instead of a “formal” defense of “advice of | |
counsel,” Trump wanted to use a different defense in which he would | |
not waive attorney-client privilege but would “elicit evidence | |
concerning the presence, involvement and advice of lawyers in relevant | |
events giving rise to the charges in the Indictment.” | |
Merchan rejected this proposal. He : “To allow said defense in this | |
matter would effectively permit Defendant to invoke the very defense he | |
has declared he will not rely upon, without the concomitant obligations | |
that come with it. The result would undoubtedly be to confuse and | |
mislead the jury. This Court can not endorse such a tactic.” | |
Therefore, Merchan ruled, Trump could not invoke or even suggest a | |
“presence of counsel” defense in the trial. | |
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