Trump would be “destroyed on cross-examination” if he used that argument, the prosecutor in the Watergate scandal that took down President Richard Nixon said on MSNBC’s “The Beat.”
It would only work if Trump “was doing something presidential, something within his job description” when he did what he is alleged to have done, said Wine-Banks.
But “it was his job as a candidate, and candidate is a different thing,” she added. Trump can’t claim he was “acting as president when he was trying to take down the election.”
“That is a question of fact that will have to be determined,” she said. “The jury will say, ‘Yes, he was trying to take it down.’ He’s saying, ‘No I wasn’t, I was trying to protect election integrity.’ There is no evidence that supports that and if he testifies that, he will be destroyed on cross-examination.”