John Dean: Jack Smith's 'bulletproof' indictment derailed Trump's 'free speech' defense
John Dean, a pivotal figure in the Watergate investigation, believes special counsel Jack Smith has crafted a "bulletproof" indictment of Donald Trump for allegedly conspiring to disrupt the counting of electoral votes in the lead-up to Jan. 6, 2021.
In an interview on CNN, Dean told host Fredricka Whitfield that Trump's lawyer would be unsuccessful in arguing in court that his actions amounted to "free speech." Dean suggested that D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan could put limits on the argument.
"There's a lot of case law," he explained. "These kinds of arguments have been argued, have been in court many times, but they've tried to say that the crime really was speech, and the speech was protected by the First Amendment. It was not."
"They have so carefully drafted this indictment to avoid the First Amendment problems that it's — I think it's bulletproof," Dean added. "So I don't think this approach is going to work."
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The longtime political figure said Trump would likely continue to make the argument publicly.
"He's taking the story out of context where in court it'll be presented in a flow of facts and witnesses," Dean noted. "And it's going to look very different when Mike Pence says he, in essence, was being told what to do and refused to do it."