If Trump committed 'a technical violation of the Constitution,' it's not a crime, his lawyer says

If former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution,” it doesn’t mean he necessarily broke any criminal laws, John Lauro, Trump’s criminal defense attorney, argued Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press."

Lauro appeared to signal how he’d defend the former president in a trial that will stem from the four-count criminal indictment returned last week by a federal grand jury that had been examining Trump’s possible role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Pressed by NBC's Chuck Todd about Trump's alleged pressure campaign to get former Vice President Mike Pence to reverse the election, Lauro claimed that Trump and Pence had merely disagreed over whether a vice president could constitutionally take actions that could lead to a presidential election’s being overturned.

“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law," Lauro contended, saying it was "just plain wrong" to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.

"And to say that is contrary to decades of legal statutes,” he continued.