Trump Defense Attorney And NBC’s Savannah Guthrie Battle It Out Over Historic Indictment: Prosecutors Trying To ‘Force A Trial’ On Trump In 60 Days
Trump defense attorney John Lauro engaged in a “very combative” exchange with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie Wednesday, claiming prosecutors were trying “to force a trial” in 60 days, and asking, “How is that justice?”
Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on four federal charges of interfering in the 2020 election before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“The prosecutor says, ‘Let’s go to trial; I’m really in 70 days.’ Fair enough, you’re not ready in 70 days. How about 90, how about six months, how about before the election?” Guthrie asked.
“How about he had three-and-a-half years,” Lauro said about prosecutor Jack Smith. “Why don’t we make it equal, OK? The bottom line is that they have 60 federal agents working on this, 60 lawyers, all kinds of government personnel. And we get this indictment, and they want to go to trial in 90 days? Does that sound like justice to you? Is that justice?” Lauro replied.
The two then began arguing over each other during a contentious back-and-forth.
LAURO: “Is it justice to force a former President of the United States to trial in 90 days when you’ve had three years —”
GUTHRIE: “As you well know, no one can force that. As you pointed out, it’s the defendant’s right to a speedy trial.”
LAURO: “Why would a prosecutor ask for that? Why would a prosecutor seeking justice, seeking truth, try to force a trial —”
GUTHRIE: “Well, I don’t know, but you just told me 10 seconds ago that they wanted to tie him up in court so he can’t run for election —”
LAURO: “Absolutely!”
GUTHRIE: “And now you’re telling me you are saying they are trying to force a speedy trial. So, which one?”
LAURO: “The election is going on right now. The election is going on right now. But they want to go to trial so that, so that instead of debating the issues against Joe Biden, that President Trump is in a courtroom. How is that justice?”
Trump is expected to turn himself in to face arraignment on Thursday.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
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