The moment we’d been waiting for had nearly arrived. Donald Trump announced in a written statement this week that he’d hold a press conference on Monday to unveil a “Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia” in 2020. The former president added that this document would be so “conclusive” that prosecutors would be compelled to drop “all charges” against him.
This was not just some random thought that the Republican blurted out for no reason. The New York Times reported that members of Trump’s team had worked on the document “for many weeks” and it was “more than 100 pages” long.
But if you’ve set aside time on Monday morning to watch the former president’s press conference, feel free to make other plans. NBC News reported overnight:
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he will no longer hold an event to present what he called an “irrefutable report” about the 2020 election in Georgia. … In a Truth Social post Thursday evening, Trump canceled Monday’s event and said the report would not be released that day, either.
According to last night’s published missive, the Republican said the “News Conference is no longer necessary” because he and his lawyers intend to present the “Irrefutable” evidence “in formal Legal Filings.” (The idiosyncratic approach to capitalization appeared in the original.)
In case this isn’t obvious, there is no evidence, “irrefutable” or otherwise. If he actually had proof that would exonerate him, Trump wouldn’t have canceled Monday’s event.
The cancelation didn’t come as too big of a surprise. For one thing, as NBC News’ report noted, the event scheduled for Monday “was never formally advised by the campaign, and Trump’s spokespeople and attorneys had also been silent about it.” It was almost as if the president was operating independently of his own political operation.
But even more important was the fact that Trump’s legal defense team clearly saw this as a terrible idea. ABC News reported yesterday, for example, that the former president’s attorneys had privately advised him that holding a press conference to promote “dubious claims of voter fraud” would only “complicate his legal problems.”
Their concerns were well grounded. This isn’t exactly complicated: Holding a press conference to promote election lies, in the immediate aftermath of being criminally charged for interfering in an election, is the sort of idea that makes defense attorneys panic and prosecutors salivate in anticipation. The fact that Trump has a habit of blurting out damaging information about himself only added to the potential jeopardy.
Stepping back, what we’re seeing is a subtle power shift: Trump’s media strategy was at odds with his legal defense strategy. Traditionally, that wasn’t much of a fight, since the former president has demonstrated a willingness to ignore his attorneys’ good advice in pursuit of public-relations goals. After four criminal indictments, however, the Republican is apparently listening to his lawyers a bit more intently. Indeed, not only did Trump cancel Monday’s press conference on the advice of counsel, his statement last night also added a brief rhetorical caveat: “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings….” The addition of “I believe” is new — and it’s suddenly more common in Trump’s messaging. The former president’s lawyers, in other words, appear to now have the kind of influence they previously lacked.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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