Ex-federal prosecutor: Jan. 6 defendants’ 'useful idiot' strategy won’t work for Trump

Of the approximately 1,200 rioters arrested in relation to the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, roughly 900 have pleaded guilty or have been convicted in a trial.

Many of those defendants' lawyers argued — some successfully — that their clients were simply too gullible and were taken advantage of in the heat of the moment. But one former federal prosecutor said that strategy won't be available to former President Donald Trump when he goes to trial in Washington, DC for alleged election interference this spring.

"In essence, many of the Jan. 6 participants have said that they were useful idiots," Joyce Vance, a former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, told NBC News. "Trump literally cannot do that."

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According to NBC, several defendants involved in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol previously argued that they were hoodwinked by the former president's rhetoric. College student Gabriel Chase, who is affiliated with the far-right America First movement (also known as "groypers"), described himself in court proceedings as "someone who made the stupidest decision of my life because I was gullible enough to believe the lies of people who were using me for their own aggrandizement." He was ultimately sentenced to probation for a misdemeanor violation.

Attorneys for Pennsylvania resident Peter Schwarz argued in a sentencing memo that their client was "motivated by a misunderstanding as to the facts surrounding the 2020 election."

"There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the 'great lie' that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent," Schwarz' lawyers wrote.

Vance told NBC that Trump may attempt a similar "idiot" defense by claiming that he truly believed the 2020 election had been unjustly stolen from him. However, she noted that Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith had compiled "very strong" evidence from former White House officials who repeatedly told the ex-president that he lost the election fair and square, meaning that defense likely won't hold water.

READ MORE: 'Selective and vindictive prosecution': Trump asks judge to dismiss 'nakedly political' Jan. 6 charges

"I think he’ll be forced, if he goes to trial, to rely on this defense that he honestly believed he had won the election," Vance said. "[I]t is hard to believe that a jury would credit that, but of course, he only has to play to one juror, so that will likely be the strategy."

Read NBC's full report by clicking here.