"It would help Fani Willis build her case": Experts explain why Trump might second-guess his presser

Former President Donald Trump's legal advisers are urging him to cancel a press conference he promised would expose "irrefutable" evidence of 2020 presidential election fraud, according to ABC News. 

"If he does restrain himself and not hold the press conference, it will mark one of the first times he has ever taken the advice of wise counsel," James Sample, a professor at Hofstra University's School of Law, told Salon.

Shortly after Trump and 18 allies were formally indicted with felony racketeering and numerous conspiracy counts related to their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, the ex-president declared his plan to hold a news conference refuting the allegations.

"A Large, Complex, Detailed but irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia is almost complete & will be presented by me at a major News Conference at 11:00 A.M. on Monday of next week in Bedminster, New Jersey," Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social this week. 

The former president alleged that the "conclusive report" would show that all charges should be dropped against him and the others.

Despite Trump's post, his plans may actually be derailed by his legal team, as advisers have pressed him to cancel the event lest he potentially risk digging himself into a deeper hole in the Georgia elections case, ABC News reported Thursday. 

"Trump is obviously a unique defendant because he is running for president, but to hold a press conference that is specifically about the charges against him would be the height of foolishness," Sample explained. One of the reasons that Miranda rights exist is to allow defendants in criminal contexts to remain silent, Sample pointed it. They "are almost always better off remaining silent than speaking when they don't have to," he said.

"A press conference may be good politics, but it's bad for Trump's legal cases," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Salon. "All Trump would be doing by holding a press conference is potentially giving Smith and Willis more evidence that his claims of voter fraud were meritless and that he knew he lost the election."

The report that Trump is referring to is a document consisting of more than 100 pages that was compiled partly by a Trump communications aide, Liz Harrington, who supports his election-fraud claims, The New York Times reported. It concentrates on alleged voting irregularities in Georgia – a focal point of election skeptics. The report has taken weeks to come together, one source told the newspaper. Harrington has even made calls to people outside of Trump's campaign about the event, people familiar with the matter told The Times.

Soon after Trump made his announcement, she posted to X, the platform previously known as Twitter. "Georgia has among the most corrupt elections in the country — and they haven't gotten better since 2020, they've gotten worse!" she wrote. "Tune in Monday!"

Trump himself, has continued to push out baseless claims about the 2020 election being rigged, even after his most recent indictment. But, organizing an in-person press conference might expose him to greater legal risks than simply posting on social media.

"While at this point, he has not suffered any consequences for the repeated, threatening and insulting attacks on witnesses and on the processes, I suspect that with four cases and four judges and three different lead prosecutors, we are not far removed from him actually, potentially for the first time facing real consequences," Sample said.

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The former president could possibly face "contempt or witness tampering charges," he added. If the press conference does take place, video from the event could be used as evidence against him, particularly if it captures audio of him making threats toward a witness or judge.

"If Trump starts making statements that are provably false, it may provide more evidence for the prosecutorial theory behind the Georgia indictment, which is that he intentionally deals in known falsehoods to further a political agenda and harm democratic institutions. It would help Fani Willis build her case," Joshua Ritter, a former Los Angeles County prosecutor and a partner at the firm El Dabe Ritter, told Salon 

Trump's indictment in Georgia marks the fourth time he's been indicted this year, and the second within this month, that he's been charged with attempting to undermine the outcome of the presidential election in 2020.

"At a certain point, one threat or another will be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back," Sample said. "That is the kind of thing that can be played to a jury, can be presented to a judge and will be taken very seriously… because it's more compelling, psychologically, to see and hear the individual doing those things than it is to just read text."