‘Doomed to lose’: Legal expert says Trump’s change of venue request going nowhere
A legal expert said Wednesday that Donald Trump's likely request for a venue change in the election interference case for which the former president was indicted on Tuesday is going nowhere.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, during an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” was responding to comments from Trump attorney John Lauro, who said Wednesday during an appearance on “CBS This Morning” that he would “absolutely” seek a venue change.
Lauro suggested “other options” including West Virginia, which he said is “much more diverse than Washington D.C., which I think went 95 percent for Mr. Biden.”
“I think it's a motion that Donald Trump's team is smart to make, but certain to lose," Honig said.
“I fully understand why Donald Trump wants to get out of the District of Columbia as Mr. Lauro said, Donald Trump got 5.4 percent of the vote there in 2020. By the way, he got 68 percent of the vote in West Virginia," he said.
"But in order to succeed on this motion..., one option is if DOJ agrees. They're not going to agree. So then you have to go to the judge, the judge can move the case to a different venue. One if it's more convenient, this would be wildly inconvenient to move this from D.C. to West Virginia, or two, if it's necessary to ensure the fairness of the trial.
“But the judge will say, ‘look, we have jury selection processes. Donald Trump, as the defendant, will have the right to strike, to get rid of many jurors, and I the judge will instruct jurors that they are to put aside their political beliefs,’ so I think any such motion – I get why Trump will make it – it's doomed to lose.”
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