Trump’s lawyers are ready to overturn the election without having to go to jail

On election day The year 2024 is just over a week away, both Kamala Harris AND Donald Trump camps expect a historically close result, with the winner determined by a narrow margin in several states. Both sides assembled their respective legal war rooms, deployed their legal forces in a number of swing states, recruited armies of local legal counsel on these battlefields, and devoted enormous resources to preparing for a tense battle in the courts.

Everyone is ready for, as one of Trump’s advisers put it, “total war” if the post-election period turns into madness.

The MAGA side, however, has unique concerns that have vexed its pro-Trump lawyers to the point where some of them have felt the need to issue new guidance to workers.

It all comes down to: How do you do this without possibly going to jail or being sued into oblivion?

In the aftermath Joe BidenFollowing a clear victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election, the then-president and conservatives launched a months-long crusade to overturn the election results, culminating in the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In the years that followed, Trump and his allies cemented The Republican Party’s orthodoxy, anti-democratic lies and conspiracy theories fueled his efforts to deny the election. Still, a sweeping Trump-led operation to undo his 2020 loss has led to various lawsuits, a record second impeachment of Trump by the House of Representatives, a high-profile congressional investigation, and state and federal investigations that have resulted in criminal charges against scores of people MAGAland luminaries including Trump himself.

It is understandable that many of the current crop of Trump-aligned lawyers and staffers are preparing to “Stop the theft” all over again, if he loses a second time, he’s not very enthusiastic about the idea of ​​going to jail. This year they’re doing it a little differently.

“We don’t want to be indicted or arrested like we were last time,” says one source involved in the vast Trump 2024 legal apparatus he is leading this election season and which is overseen by the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. Rolling Stone spoke to five lawyers and advisors involved in planning and strategy.

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One such lawyer says he recently advised lawyers and other Trumpists working on the action in Pennsylvania – perhaps the most important of the swing states where Harris and Trump are neck and neck – not to put anything “in writing” that could, if publicly disclosed, there is a risk that the legal team will not believe in the validity of any of their or Trump’s claims or legal arguments.

In the indictments brought against Trump and his associates, prosecutors consistently paint a portrait of the then-president and his allies with corrupt intentions, including: fake voters Plot of land – because apparently there was plenty evidence they knew what are they? we did on lies, but he did it anyway.

Others working on Trump 2024-oriented legal teams, including in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, say they have issued or received similar guidance, with another source describing the memo they received, with the message reading – one source paraphrases – “simply “don’t be stupid… and stay away from crazy,” especially in private written communications between co-workers. (This source notes the irony of the situation when their colleagues issued a written memo about not writing down certain things in written notes.)

“My biggest mistake was assuming that everyone around me acted with the same good faith and professionalism as me” – Jenna Ellis, a former senior legal adviser to Trump who faced charges and legal consequences stemming from the former president’s efforts after the 2020 election. says Rolling Stone. “I would advise anyone involved in any post-election litigation to do their due diligence and especially to distance themselves from those who may be encouraging actual criminal behavior.”

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Moreover, various branches of the Republican Party have tried to put up some semblance of a barrier to keep some of the more obvious lies and cartoonishly embarrassing conspiracy theories from dominating Trumpworld’s court documents and legal arguments, as they did in 2020 and 2021. As they did in 2020 and 2021. According to ABC News reportedfor example, “Republicans in Arizona have formed a team tasked with receiving and sorting reports on election issues from across the state, and one source familiar with the operation described it as a “daily turnover of trivial issues.”

And yet it’s not as if frivolous and outrageously false claims are having a hard time getting through – including to the GOP leader as he prepares for another possible series of post-election legal battles.

Earlier this week New York Times reported that Trump spoke privately again with Kurt Olsen, the lawyer who assisted Trump in his attempt to steal the 2020 election. “Mr. Olsen urged Trump to press forward with legal demands before Election Day to store data from voting machines in Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia,” it says Times.

The false belief, promoted by then-President Trump and many in the Republican Party, that Dominion Voting Systems machines played a key role in rigging the 2020 election against Trump quickly became one of the most prominent far-right conspiracy theories of the entire election. The conspiracy theory that helped fuel Trump’s attempted coup has led to an extremely expensive lawsuit for Fox News.

Over the past few months, Trump has indeed questioned close confidants about Dominion machines and other popular U.S. voting technologies in the context of the tight 2024 race, according to two sources familiar with the matter. This isn’t a huge surprise considering some in the upper crust of Trumpland are recovery the Dominion conspiracy theory and publicly bringing it to the forefront.

“There’s always the question of, say, Dominion voting machines. It’s strange that I think they were used in Philadelphia and Maricopa County (in Arizona), but not in many other places. Doesn’t this seem like a damn coincidence?” billionaire, Trump supporter Elon Musk he said while supporting the former president in Pennsylvania this month.

Domination very quickly pushed away to Musk’s comments. “Dominion is closely monitoring claims around November. Elections 2024 and strongly encourages you to use proven, reliable sources of information” – the company sent last week on X, which is owned by Musk. “We remain fully prepared to defend our company and our customers against lies and those who spread them.”

Elsewhere, both presidential candidates and their parties have devoted enormous legal and professional resources to preparing for a brutal election aftermath, especially if the winner is not known for several days.

“It was very important to ensure a completely professional operation in every respect,” RNC Chairman and close Trump ally Michael Whatley said recently he said Associated Press. “What we’ve seen in court over the last six months, and with over 130 lawsuits, is evidence that we’re working with the states and the courts to get a really, really responsible program in place.”

Across the aisle, Biden and the Democratic Party elite have spent years building a legal “superstructure” (which Vice President Harris inherited) across the country and engaged in war games based on a series of nightmarish scenarios in which Trump he would try to steal again some American elections in an extremely close race.

“The veteran lawyers who fought and won in 2020 prepared for dozens of scenarios, drafting thousands of pages of legal briefs and working directly with hundreds of lawyers and experts in the field in battleground states, ensuring we’re ready for whatever the other side throws at us throws our way,” Harris’ 2024 campaign said in an internal memo ABC.

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Although Trump and the Republicans could win choice Simply put, the former president does not want to leave this issue to chance. He and his allies spent years laying the groundwork, state by stateto corrupt the 2024 election and make it easier for Trump to steal if it’s close and he loses.

How Rolling Stone as recently reported, Trump is already cynically planning to declare, even on election night, that the election is “rigged” against him, citing slower vote counting in some states – the slow counting of mail-in ballots that Trump and other Republicans he worked to ensure would happen this year.