Former President Donald Trump has, let’s say, a shaky relationship with historical fidelity. He often attempts to completely rewrite history to suit whatever point he’s currently making regardless of how much it may contradict something he’s previously said. When confronted with this discrepancy, Trump will usually attempt to either claim he never said the first thing or otherwise dismiss the past in favor of the present.
There’s one exception to this rule: sworn depositions. For all his bluster otherwise, Trump is usually (but not always) more restrained when it comes to claims he’s made in court. As Politico recently reported, though, his attempt to have the federal charges against him for election interference thrown out on the basis of a cockamamie theory of “absolute presidential immunity” has led to even more blatant attempts to completely reverse himself. This desperate play shows that the case that special counsel Jack Smith has against Trump is forcing the former president up against the wall.
This desperate play shows that the case that special counsel Jack Smith has against Trump is forcing the former president up against the wall.
Let’s jump back to right after the 2020 presidential election, in the early days of Trump’s attempts to declare himself the winner despite clearly losing to Joe Biden. Between Election Day and when the electoral college voted in mid-December, the Trump campaign filed a boatload of legal cases in various states attempting to have the results overturned. While across-the-board unsuccessful and built on the scantest of evidence, suing in court was well within his right as a presidential candidate.
In most of those filings, his lawyers emphasized his role as a candidate to give him standing to bring suit. The harm that Trump alleged was being done was to him as a political office-seeker, not to him in his official capacity as president. In tweets sent while those cases were proceeding (and the fundraising money…
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