The insurrectionists Trump’s latest mouthpiece is now claiming that Trump did no wrong because he “believed in his heart of hearts that he had won the election.” Is this an insanity plea? Trump lost touch with reality and is not responsible for what he did. 

I am ready to believe that Trump is insane, but I surely would not buy this argument.

Or, Trump was mistaken, had been given bad advice. OK.  Say I have a contract to murder Don Corleone. So I killed a Don. But I was shown the wrong photo, and so I mistakenly killed Albert Anastasia. 

So I will plead that I killed Albert by mistake, therefore did not really mean to kill Albert, and therefore should escape any charge.

But I believed it in my “heart of hearts.” 

That’s assuming that I have a functioning “heart of hearts.”

But we all make mistakes. 

True enough. But those of us who are not super-rich or consummate liars have to live with the consequences of our mistakes.