Donald Trump Co-Defendants' Plea Deal Videos Could Poke Hole in His Defense

Leaked videos of attorneys making plea deals in Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia could poke holes in his defense, lawyers have said.

Speaking on MSNBC's The Last Word, attorneys Gwen Keyes Fleming and Joyce Vance and Neal Katyal, the former principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, reacted to the footage obtained by ABC News and The Washington Post.

The videos show the ex-president's lawyers being interviewed by prosecutors involved in the indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis relating to alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the county. Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the case.

One such former lawyer, Jenna Ellis, pleaded guilty in October to one felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

In a clip of her interview, she alleged that Dan Scavino, Trump's deputy chief of staff at the time, said to her during a Christmas party in December 2020 that "the boss" didn't plan to leave the White House "under any circumstances," regardless of the results of the election.

Fleming said this conversation could help prosecutors "establish the intent to continue to the fraud," which she said is a "key element" of the crimes in the indictment.

Meanwhile Katyal agreed that the evidence showed criminal intent.

"This evidence goes to criminal intent that Donald Trump wasn't thinking about whether he won or lost, he was just going to stay in power no matter what," he said, adding that it was significant the testimony came from Ellis because she was within Trump's inner circle at the time.

He also said that Ellis testifying that the conversation with Scavino took place after the Supreme Court rejected Trump's election challenge cases suggested he intended to continue disputing the result of the election even when legal avenues to do so had closed.

"All of this together paints a really damaging picture for Donald Trump," Katyal said.

The lawyers were next shown a video of Sidney Powell, another former Trump lawyer who admitted six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit election interference in a court hearing in Atlanta. In the video, she listed advisers who she said told Trump he had lost the election.

Newsweek has contacted representatives for Trump, Ellis and Powell by email for comment.

Katyal said this was further evidence of intent, saying: "Trump was told he lost, he was told he lost and it's going to be really be a devastating thing when this goes to trial and Trump tries to assert that 'I believe I won' because he will look insane [and] won't be credible before a jury."

Fleming agreed and said the list of people who said he had not won was "getting longer and longer."

It comes after another of Trump's 17 co-defendants, Reverend Stephen Cliffgard Lee, announced at an event last week that he has no plans to take a plea deal in the case, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"I am not going to plead out to a lie," Lee said at a fundraiser hosted by the Families of Faith Ministries. "I'm not going to cooperate with evil. This is bigger than me."

The case is one of four criminal cases the former president is facing, and one of two specifically pertaining to his alleged actions after the 2020 election.