On Tuesday, just hours after he was criminally indicted in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, former President Donald Trump announced a major press conference for next week to detail the alleged findings of a report about 2020 election fraud.
Trump announced on Thursday, however, that the planned press conference had been canceled, ostensibly on the advice of his attorneys who he said would prefer to include the report's conclusions in formal legal filings, according to The Washington Times.
It was late Monday evening that Fulton County DA Willis unveiled a sprawling criminal indictment against former President Trump and numerous associates that included dozens of felony charges about an alleged racketeering conspiracy to overturn the disputed results of Georgia's presidential election in 2020.
Just hours later on Tuesday morning, Trump posted to his Truth Social account, "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."
"Based on the results of this CONCLUSIVE Report, all charges should be dropped against me & others -- There will be a complete EXONERATION! They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!" he added.
Just two and a half days later, however, former President Trump announced in another Truth Social post that the planned news conference would now not be happening.
Trump wrote, "Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record-breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta."
"Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!" he added.
It is unclear what, exactly, if anything, the alleged comprehensive election fraud report highlighted by former President Trump would have revealed about the 2020 election in Georgia, the Times noted.
To be sure, it is certainly possible that the report Trump intended to share in the now-canceled Monday news conference could contain credible and never-before-seen evidence of election fraud that, as the former president indicated, his attorneys would prefer to present to the public within a legal filing.
Yet, as the outlet noted, to date and more than two-and-a-half years later, little if any compelling evidence of widespread electoral fraud in the amount necessary to alter the outcome of the 2020 election in certain disputed states has been presented or accepted.
That said, another factor for the apparent opposition of Trump's attorneys to his planned press conference, per the Times, is the fact that Trump has already been warned by the federal judge overseeing his criminal indictment over election-related matters by Special Counsel Jack Smith against making "inflammatory" statements or publicly revealing certain "sensitive" information pertaining to the case.
Indeed, the judge explicitly warned Trump that she "will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of the case."
In other words, Trump's attorneys may have convinced him to cancel the planned press conference in order to avoid the possibility that he would run afoul of that judge and incur potentially serious consequences for his actions.
