Federal judge: Trump, lawyers knew election fraud data was inaccurate, not illegal
President Trump’s attorneys and his campaign knew that their campaign manager’s claim that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s team had “hacked” and “rigged” the presidential election was a false theory, according to a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that neither Donald Trump Jr. nor Jared Kushner, his then-campaign manager, could be prosecuted under the state’s election laws for violating them in 2016. The decision means that neither can be prosecuted under federal law, since the laws governing federal elections are set in ways that differ from the states.
It also means a guilty plea from the president’s son and his adviser now would be difficult for prosecutors and the judge would not be able to consider whether the president acted in his own best interest in seeking the highest office through illegal means.
“I’m hopeful that they will agree that their conduct did not constitute an illegal act on behalf of the campaign,” said U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump Jr. and Kushner, who are both defendants in their own case, argued in a court filing that they did not intend to break any laws and that they did not know their father was misleading voters. They also questioned why any law would apply to a campaign that’s spent the last several years arguing that it was above the law, and had made numerous other legal blunders, including that it could not accept large campaign donations of foreign nationals.
Trump Jr. and Kushner filed a petition in May 2017 asking the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that their claims fell under a state-law immunity for government officials.
They said the campaign could not be prosecuted by the state after it had voluntarily dismissed its indictment and that its statements about the hacking were true, not false. They said they had an incentive to say false things because they hoped the jury would view it in that light, and that they had an obligation to report false information to the public.
Leon rejected the petition, but ordered a trial anyway.
Leon’s ruling stems from a March 2018 ruling by U.S. District Judge William