Donald Trump's worldview over the last seven years, according to Washington Post columnist Philip Bump, has revolved around two core beliefs: First, that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election, but even if it or someone else had, it didn't matter because Trump won on his own merit. And second, that Trump's loss of the 2020 election "was not a function of his personal failures but, instead, of systems rigged against him in the abstract or directly altered to his detriment."
But that perspective — and the false claims of a stolen election Trump has been pushing alongside it — Bump argues, has presented the former president with a significant problem: a federal indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith hinged on his efforts to overturn his electoral defeat that his attorneys have been battling in a Washington, D.C. federal court since it dropped in August.
In a court filing this week, Trump's attorneys argued that the former president is not at fault because others believed the election may have been undermined. They asserted instead that Russian election interference in 2016, the same subversion that Trump often deems "the Russia hoax," was at least in some part to blame for the distrust of the 2020 election results.
Politico's Kyle Cheney noted the irony in the filing, which centers on efforts of Trump's legal team to acquire materials they believe will be useful for their defense. Among those requested materials is the classified version of an...
KUALA LUMPUR: Three construction company directors will face charges in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court tomorrow for submitting false claims related to a Klang Valley highway construction project....