Trump’s Prosecution Could Be Stymied by the Blurry Line Between Deceit and Self-Delusion

August 06, 2023

His state of mind when he tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election remains a mystery, perhaps even to him.

by Jacob Sullum Reason.com

In a CNN interview on Wednesday, former Attorney General Bill Barr weighed in on the legally crucial question of what Donald Trump was thinking when he engaged in conduct that Special Counsel Jack Smith describes as part of a criminal plot to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. “At first I wasn’t sure,” Barr said, “but I have come to believe he knew well he had lost the election.”

Michael Wolff, a journalist who wrote a trilogy of books about Trump, is much less sure about that. He argues that the main source of evidence regarding Trump’s state of mind—things he has publicly and privately said about the election—is such a confusing jumble that it may be impossible to prove criminal intent. “Does Mr. Trump mean what he says?” Wolff asks in a New York Times essay. “And what exactly does he mean when he says what he says?”