Trump would “perish under cross-examination” if he used that argument, the prosecutor in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon said on MSNBC’s “The Beat.”
It would only work if Trump did “something presidential, something that falls within his job description” when he did what he allegedly did, Wine-Banks said.
But “it was his job as a candidate, and a candidate is something different,” she added. Trump can’t claim he “acted as president when he tried to overturn the election.”
“This is a question of fact that needs to be resolved,” she said. “The jury will say, ‘Yes, he tried to take it down.’ He says, ‘No, it wasn’t me, I was trying to protect the integrity of the election.’ There’s no evidence of that, and if he says he is, he’ll be destroyed under cross-examination.”