Appearing on five television networks Sunday morning, a lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump argued that his actions in the effort to overturn the 2020 election fell short of crimes and were merely āaspirational.ā
The remarks from his lawyer, John F. Lauro, came as Mr. Trump was blanketing his social media platform, Truth Social, with posts suggesting that his legal team was going to seek the recusal of Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing the case, and try to move his trial out of Washington.
With his client facing charges carrying decades in prison after a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Trump for his role in trying to overturn the election, his third criminal case this year, Mr. Lauro appeared in interviews on CNN, ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS. He endeavored to defend Mr. Trump, including against evidence that, as president, he pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to reject legitimate votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in favor of false electors pledged to Mr. Trump.
āWhat President Trump didnāt do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything,ā Mr. Lauro said on CNNās āState of the Union.ā āHe asked him in an aspirational way.ā
Mr. Lauro used the same defense on NBCās āMeet the Press,ā when asked about Mr. Trumpās now-infamous call to Georgiaās secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. During that call, President Trump pressured Mr. Raffensperger to āfind 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,ā to win the state and suggested that Mr. Raffensperger could face criminal repercussions if he did not.
āThat was an aspirational ask,ā Mr. Lauro said.
His portrayal of Mr. Trumpās approach is at odds with two key moments in the indictment.
In one, prosecutors say that on Jan. 5, 2021, Mr. Trump met alone with Mr. Pence, who refused to do what Mr. Trump wanted. When that happened, the indictment says, āthe defendant grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the defendant would have to publicly criticize him.ā
Mr. Penceās chief of staff, Marc Short, then alerted the head of Mr. Penceās Secret Service detail, prosecutors said.
That same day, after The Times reported that Mr. Pence had indeed told Mr. Trump that he lacked the authority to do what Mr. Trump wanted, the president issued a public statement calling the report āfake news.ā According to the indictment, Mr. Trump also falsely asserted: āThe Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.ā
As Mr. Lauro made the rounds on all five Sunday news shows ā what is known as the āfull Ginsburg,ā from when Monica Lewinskyās lawyer, William Ginsburg, did the same amid allegations about her affair with President Bill Clinton ā Mr. Trump waged his own campaign on Truth Social.
āWOW, itās finally happened! Liddleā Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,ā Mr. Trump wrote on Saturday. A few days earlier, he mocked Mr. Pence, now a 2024 rival, for āattracting no crowds, enthusiasm or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him.ā
Mr. Trump went on: āI never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was ātoo honest.āā
His attack came after a judge warned Mr. Trump against intimidating witnesses and after prosecutors flagged another Truth Social post by Mr. Trump as potentially threatening.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump also attacked Jack Smith, the special counsel in the Jan. 6 case, and Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, calling Mr. Smith āderangedā and Ms. Pelosi āsickā and ādemented.ā
In one all-caps message, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Smith of waiting to bring the case until āright in the middleā of his election campaign.
In the other posts, Mr. Trump attacked Ms. Pelosi, the former House speaker, who recently said that the former president had seemed like āa scared puppyā before his arraignment. āShe is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!ā Mr. Trump wrote.
And he channeled his grievances with the court process toward Judge Chutkan and toward the population of Washington, D.C., writing that he would never get a āfair trial.ā
For his part, Mr. Pence has been criticizing Mr. Trumpās actions in carefully calibrated terms. He has repeatedly used the same phrases, arguing that anyone who āputs himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.ā He repeated similar lines on Sunday on CNNās āState of the Union,ā following Mr. Lauroās appearance, and on CBSās āFace the Nation.ā
āWhat I want the American people to know is that President Trump was wrong then and heās wrong now: that I had no right to overturn the election,ā Mr. Pence told the CNN anchor Dana Bash. āI had no right to reject or return votes, and that, by Godās grace, I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States, and I always will.ā
Maggie Haberman and Alan Feuer contributed reporting.