Donald Trump's Attorneys' Plea Deal May Have Cost Him His Defense

Plea deals reached by former lawyers for Donald Trump in Georgia may have hurt the former president's defense in his Washington D.C. case involving the 2020 election, according to a new filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

On Wednesday, Special Counsel Smith filed a motion responding to Trump's plans to mount an "advice of counsel" defense. Such a defense—also known as an affirmative defense—would normally involve the defendant waiving attorney-client privilege and admitting to the alleged conduct on the advice of lawyers in the hope it would exonerate them.

Smith's motion said that if Trump filed the defense, "there is good reason to question its viability, especially because in the time since the Government filed its motion three charged co-defendant attorneys pleaded guilty to committing crimes in connection with the 2020 election."

"At the very least, those guilty pleas highlight the complications that may arise if the defendant should assert an advice-of-counsel defense and underscore the need to resolve all issues well before the start of trial. If disclosure is delayed, it may result in disruption to the trial schedule," the motion by Smith said.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.

The probe's filing comes shortly after some of Trump's former attorneys reached plea deals in a case in Fulton County, Georgia, where the former president and 18 other co-defendants are accused of violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in connection to alleged efforts to overturn the election results in 2020.

Earlier this week, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis pled guilty to aiding and abetting false statements relating to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump, in these post-election challenges...I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse," Ellis said during her trial this week.

In addition to Ellis, other former Trump allies including attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro also pleaded guilty in the Fulton County case. Scott Hall, another co-defendant, pled guilty in the case last month.

Michael McAuliffe, a former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney, told Newsweek on Thursday: "The recent exchange of filings between the Special Counsel's office and Trump's defense team arguing about notice and discovery requirements of any advice of counsel defense is as much about delay as it is about the actual defense."

"The unpleasant and complicating factor for Trump is that three of his lawyers––all directly relevant to an advice of counsel defense––have pleaded guilty to committing crimes relating to the plot to undermine the presidential election results in Georgia," McAuliffe said, adding that the cooperation by the attorneys will likely extend to Trump's federal case in Washington D.C.

"It's becoming clear that the Trump lawyers' conduct will be central in both the Georgia state RICO case and the Special Counsel's federal election interference case. Are the lawyers the masterminds and Trump merely the dupe or are they all in the plot together? It's a difficult defense for Trump to assert that he was merely following his lawyers' counsel as that doesn't match the overwhelming and public evidence that Trump does what Trump wants to do," McAuliffe told Newsweek.