Only one obstacle remains to the indictment and conviction of Donald Trump: the argument that no matter how strong the federal prosecutor’s case might be, Trump will get away with it on the grounds that he believed that there was widespread election fraud and was also convinced, based on the advice of his lawyer, that he had the authority to overturn the election. This argument, though repeated by commentators, think tanks, and former prosecutors, is nonsense.
Trump’s state of mind with respect to whether there was election fraud is irrelevant to the crimes for which he would be indicted. Those charges arise from: the pressure Trump brought on state officials to violate their statutory duties with respect to counting votes, Trump’s attempt to force the vice president to block the process of ratifying the election, and Trump’s participation in a conspiracy to attack the Capitol.
