Ali Velshi in for Alex Wagner. A MAGA freak show. That's how one person familiar with

Donald Trump's January 6 trial preparations describe the former president's strategy

according to Rolling Stone magazine. In new reporting today, Rolling Stone cites several of Trump's legal and political advisors

who claim that the former president is demanding that they incorporate fringe conspiracies

into his legal defense, quote,

his list of ideas has included asserting

that there's evidence that anti-Trump elements

in the FBI framed him and MAGA protesters by using undercover agents

and informants to instigate the deadly January 6th riot.

That anarchists and left-wing anti-fascists played a role in attacking the Capitol that day

and that Trump's lieutenants had gathered real evidence

showing quote massive amounts of voter and election fraud end quote quote,

massive amounts of voter and election fraud, end quote, in 2020,

in swing states and heavily Democratic urban areas

as he has long baselessly claimed, end quote.

Now, Trump's team has even discussed calling witnesses

like Nancy Pelosi and other political foes to the stand

in an effort to paint them as the true villains of January 6th.

That new reporting helps explain why just last week the Special Counsel Jack Smith asked

the judge overseeing Trump's federal elections case to prohibit Trump

from raising any of those conspiracies at trial.

Jack Smith appears to have anticipated these fantastical absurd arguments from

...