Donald Trump Lawyer Appears to Admit to One of Jack Smith's Charges

One of Donald Trump's lawyers has been accused of confirming allegations that the former president has been cited over in his latest federal indictment during a round of media interviews.

Attorney John Lauro appeared on both Fox News and Newsmax on Thursday, after Trump pleaded not guilty in Washington, D.C., to four charges in relation to Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the events which led up to the January 6 attack, to defend the actions of the former president.

Lauro's apparent admissions involve pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021, and instead send them back to the states, as well as fellow Trump attorney John Eastman, identified as "Co-Conspirator 2" in the indictment, trying to persuade Pence to break the law by further delaying the certification of the election results in the aftermath of the January 6 attack.

Former President Donald Trump holds an umbrella as he arrives at Reagan National Airport following an arraignment in a Washington, D.C. court on August 3, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. Trump's lawyer has been accused of confirming allegations the former president faces under the 2020 election federal investigation into him. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

In response to the claims, Lauro told Newsweek: "Unfortunately, some of the legal commentary is not focused on the actual facts of the case. But instead is based on an erroneous understanding of what happened. Sadly, that leads to a lot of public misinformation, which is to be expected in this highly charged political environment.

"My comments were consistent with the facts that are already in the public record, and by no means constitute any admission."

The 45-page indictment accuses Trump and Eastman of trying to get Pence to reject the results based on "knowingly false claims of election fraud"—a key allegation in the prosecution's case that Trump knew he had lost the election to Joe Biden but carried on with the conspiracy to overturn the results. Lauro has been contacted for comment via email.

"What President Trump said is, 'Let's go with option D,'" Lauro said on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle. "Let's just halt, let's just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. That's constitutional law. That's not an issue of criminal activity."

Lauro also made a similar claim while speaking to Newsmax's Greg Kelly on Thursday.

"President Trump wanted to get to the truth. He desperately wanted to get to what happened during the 2020 cycle. He did it in the courtroom. He did it in lobbying legislatures, that's all First Amendment," Lauro said.

"And then at the end, he asked Mr. Pence to pause the voting for 10 days, allow the state legislatures to weigh in, and then they could make a determination to audit, or re-audit, or recertify. But what he didn't do is send in the tanks, tell Mike Pence don't go to Capitol Hill, or do anything that would obstruct the due process of government."

On page 34 of the indictment, there is a section that details how Trump and Eastman met with Pence on January 4, 2021, two days before the Capitol riot, to try and convince Pence that he should "reject or send to the states Biden's legitimate electoral votes, rather than count them."

Page 42 includes a section that states that hours after the January 6 attack took place, Eastman wrote to Pence to "implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation" of the Electoral Count Act and "adjourn for 10 days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations, as well as to allow a full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that has occurred here."

In a tweet sharing Lauro's Newsmax comments, former Department of Justice lawyer Andrew Weissman said the remarks from Trump's attorney are "an admission. Not a defense."

Tristan Snell, a lawyer and former assistant attorney general for New York state, added: "Did one of Trump's lawyers just ADMIT, on live TV, that Trump pushed Pence to delay the certification?!?

"John Lauro's statement is likely admissible in court—and he can now potentially be disqualified from representing Trump."

Speaking to MSNBC, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner also said "it makes no sense" that one of Trump's lawyers would openly talk about important aspects of the case in media interviews.

"What I hear when you play that clip of John Lauro saying 'oh, Trump just said let's go with option D.' Donald Trump said let's go with criminal option D," Kirschner said.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, described the criminal investigation into him as a "persecution of a political opponent" after pleading not guilty of charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

"This is the persecution of the person that's leading by very, very substantial numbers," Trump said. "If you can't beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute him. We can't let this happen in America."

Update 08/04/23, 8:13 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from John Lauro.