General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Poll: What is the reason Trump hasn't been indicted yet? [View all]StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)excluded by the hearsay rules.
Some of the things he said can be admitted because they are not actually hearsay, which is defined as an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserte.. For example, if someone testified that Trump said to them, "I ordered the insurrection," that would be hearsay if the point of introducing the statement was to prove that Trump ordered the insurrection. But if someone testified Trump said, "I am the T'Challa, King of Wakanda" during a trial in which Trump's mental state was the issue, that statement would not be hearsay because it was not being introduced to prove that he was actually the Black Panther, but that he was delusional.
And then, even if a statement is hearsay - for example, "I ordered the insurrection" - it could still be admitted if it fell under one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule. One of those is a "statement against interest" exception because it was an admission that could expose him to criminal liability and, thus, could be inferred to be more reliable than some other kinds of hearsay (since it's presumed that people don't generally lie in ways that get them in more trouble). Or if in his excitement during the insurrection, he punched his fist in the air and shouted to everyone in the room, "I DID it! I DID it! I made this insurrection happen and now I'm going to get to stay in office!" that could be deemed an excited utterance - a "statement relating to a startling event or condition, made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement that it caused" - and therefore would be admissible.
I hope that makes sense.