As Donald Trump is drowning in lawsuits, it's a good idea to get the opinions of actual lawyers to learn about Trump's actual chances. One resource I like is the Serious Trouble podcast, with Ken White (aka Popehat), a seasoned federal lawyer, as co-host.
Another valuable voice is the LegalEagle YouTube channel, which recently posted its breakdown of Trump's Jan 6 indictment. While the video gives a good analysis of what's going on and what the prosecution does and doesn't need to prove, I think it also reveals something ingenious about Special Counsel Jack Smith's strategy.
In the video, LegalEagle host Devin Stone goes through a list of possible defense strategies for Trump. For example, protected free speech is one argument; another is the exact definition of "corrupt intent" in one of the articles under which he's charged. And so on.
Stone then goes through a number of trials of the Jan 6 insurrectionists, many of which were charged with the very same articles that Trump is charged with now. He shows how the lawyers for those insurrectionists raised the same objections Trump's lawyers could make. And then he shows how those objections failed.
In other words, the lawyers for the Jan 6 traitors have inadvertently provided the Special Counsel with a wealth of possible defense strategies to guard against. Not only that, where the courts have roundly rejected these strategies, Smith can simply cite those rejections as precedents. This makes the defense's case much weaker, and will probably also speed up the trial.
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