Appearing on Wednesday’s edition of “Fox & Friends,” legal analyst Elliot Felig explained the rational-legal authority behind the latest federal charges against former President Donald Trump.
Felig’s appearance was noteworthy not for his qualifications or previous experience but because he explained the charges differently than virtually all of the other legal analysts Fox News has chosen to bring on since the third indictment against Trump dropped.
The four-count, 45-page indictment describes the government’s case against Trump in great detail, alleging he tried to undermine America’s democratic institutions, pressure the Justice Department and then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the will of the people and coerce officials in multiple states to reject the election results and falsify their votes. (RELATED: Pence Unleashes Bottled-Up Feelings After Explosive New Indictment)
Special Counsel Jack Smith maintains Trump orchestrated the plan with a small cadre of co-conspirators despite knowing the claims of widespread election fraud sufficient to change the election’s outcome were false.
Prime-time hosts like Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham derided Smith’s latest indictment of Trump, citing it as an example of “two tiers of justice” and “election interference” in the 2024 presidential election by purportedly impeding on his right to free speech.
But that wasn’t what the indictment was about as Felig countered on Fox’s morning news program. The former prosecutor explained the charges pertained to Trump’s alleged scheme to appoint pseudo-electors who hadn’t been certified or endorsed by state government officials as required.
Mediaite has the transcript:
Felig: So he has a First Amendment right to say the election was stolen. He can say that all over the country. He can say it all over TV. He has a right to file lawsuit after lawsuit claiming that the election was stolen and try to stop the certification. However, where he got in trouble is when they assembled these electors in the various states after Joe Biden had been declared the winner by the secretaries of state or by the governors, had them sign a certification saying we are the duly elected and duly certified electors. That’s where he’s going to argue there was no good faith basis. That’s where he’s going to say the fraud took place. If I can make an analogy right, I could come on your show. I can say I’m Elon Musk’s long-lost son, and I’m entitled to inherit all of his billions and billions of dollars when he dies. I can say that all over the country, even though it’s false. Even though it’s stupid,
Doocy: It’s the First Amendment!
Felig: Your First Amendment. Exactly. But if after Elon Musk passes away, I walk into probate court, hand up a document that says, hey, this is Elon Musk’s will, I know it’s not his will and it says I’m his son. And I say, I get all these billions of dollars. Guess what? Then I’ve committed fraud, then I’ve committed forgery. I may be done on attempted grand larceny. And Jack Smith is going to make the argument that that’s where they were not acting in good faith, that when they had these false certificates prepared, when they asked Mike Pence to accept those rather than the other certificates, that’s where he’s going to argue the fraud was.
Responding to the back-and-forth, co-host Ainsley Earhardt summed up the special counsel’s strategy: proving Trump knew the certificates were false.
Earhardt noted that Trump remains publicly adamant that he won the 2020 election, which Felig explained will likely come up repeatedly during the trial:
Felig: Well, that’s a great point. So to the extent that the indictment depends on knowingly making false statements, the key there is knowingly yeah, Donald Trump is going to defend this by saying he truly believed at the time and still to this day, absolutely believes that the election was stolen even in the absence of evidence, even though his own attorney general and so many others said, no, this was a fair election.
Trump himself responded to the charges brought by Smith’s office Tuesday night.
Read the full text of the indictment from the 2020 election probe below:
Trump is scheduled to make his first appearance in the case Thursday at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
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