Trump's Attorneys

[Kathianne]

I admit to being very confused about Trump and his relations with attorneys. As long ago as his divorce from Ivana, it was clear that Trump was extremely litigious.

During the last election, I was amazed and disgusted by the behaviors of some of his lawyers. Too many also chose to leave over differences within the attorneys involved, as well as their client. I felt it had much to do with his loss and certainly later on any chance of questioning results.

Today and for past couple weeks the relations of lawyers involved within Team Trump are once again seemingly at each others throats and already some leaving.

Bottom line, someone needs to explain why, WHY Trump held onto these documents, after being asked to return them. Now with recording, it lends credence to the concerns of serious secret documents not only being in his possession, but truly being treated with lack of care. Supposedly not documents he'd declassified, which if contents were as purported to be, they shouldn't have been declassified, by definition should not have been in his hand at Mar-A-Lago.

Can anyone explain their understanding of why Trump would behave this way?

[jimnyc]

I think Trump fancies himself a lawyer.... he wants them to do his bidding and likely do so in a way that he approves of. Likely overrules them, fires some, and has them at odds with one another over how to go forward.

Just a guess. :dunno:

He should just hire the best lawyers in the world and STFU. Might be a tad late though!

[Kathianne]

I think Trump fancies himself a lawyer.... he wants them to do his bidding and likely do so in a way that he approves of. Likely overrules them, fires some, and has them at odds with one another over how to go forward.

Just a guess. :dunno:

He should just hire the best lawyers in the world and STFU. Might be a tad late though!

Considering his behavior, if you are one of the best lawyers in the world, would you take him as a client? Me neither. He's had that problem for years.

[hjmick]

Ego.

[Mr. P]

Ego.

Totally!

[Kathianne]

WSJ editorial: https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-indictment-classified-documents-mar-a-lago-merrick-garland-republican-party-f8c5776b?st=rdjgmrj1dkhv4yl&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink


The Self-Destructive Donald Trump
The document indictment is misguided, but he made it easier for his enemies, as he always does.By The Editorial Board
June 13, 2023 7:01 pm ET

...

We’re on record as believing that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s indictment of Mr. Trump is a misguided use of prosecutorial power that could have destructive consequences. It intervenes in a presidential election campaign, unleashing political furies that are impossible to predict. It keeps Mr. Trump the dominant issue of the presidential campaign, denying the country the larger debate the public deserves.


The shame is that this is exactly what both Mr. Trump and the White House want. Mr. Trump would rather not be charged, but he is already brandishing the indictments against him as a campaign credential.

...

Mr. Trump believes he had the right to keep the documents under the Presidential Records Act, and we think he has a stronger case than the press claims. But once he received a subpoena for those documents, Mr. Trump should have known he was at legal peril if he concealed them or lied about having them.


Yet if the indictment is correct, that is precisely what he did. He allegedly suggested to a lawyer that he could “pluck” out a page and not turn it over. In the most striking episode, he brandished a classified document related to a war plan in front of his staff and a writer.


Incredibly, the indictment says he did this while he knew he was being tape-recorded: “Mr. Trump: Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and—”


In the same conversation, he allegedly admitted that he hadn’t declassified the document, as he previously told the public he had done with all documents he retained. He thus undercut part of his own potential defense. The narcissism and wretched judgment are familiar, but still hard to believe.


It’s also telling that Mr. Trump is now struggling to find lawyers to replace the two who resigned last week. How can a former President not find a lawyer?


All of this fits the pattern that made Mr. Trump’s Presidency less productive than it could have been. Yes, he was wronged by the false Russia collusion claims. But too often he helped his opponents.


In 2017 he retained James Comey as FBI director against better advice because he thought he could control him. Four months later Mr. Trump undercut his own deputy attorney general’s explanation for firing Mr. Comey by saying he fired him because the FBI director wouldn’t publicly exonerate him. This triggered the Mueller special counsel probe.


Mr. Trump aided his own first impeachment with a phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky looking for dirt on Joe Biden. He undermined his credibility on Covid because he lacked the self-discipline to avoid brawling with reporters who knew they could always goad him.


His role in the disgrace of Jan. 6, 2021, is well known. But had he accepted the 2020 election results, he might now be coasting to the nomination and have an excellent chance to win.


***
If Mr. Trump is the GOP nominee, he is unlikely to defeat Joe Biden. But if he did win, the document fiasco is what a second term would be like. He wouldn’t be able to deliver the conservative policy victories that Republicans want because he can’t control himself. He’d be preoccupied with grievance and what he calls “retribution.” The best people won’t work for him because they see how he mistreated so many loyalists in the first term.

...

Regarding the 2nd bolded:

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2023/06/14/trump-first-thing-ill-do-is-appoint-a-special-prosecutor-to-go-after-the-biden-crime-family-n557941


Trump: First thing I'll do is appoint a special prosecutor to go after the "Biden crime family"
ED MORRISSEY 11:21 AM on June 14, 2023

...

Trump then pledged to use the Department of Justice to go after “others involved in the destruction of our elections, our borders, and the country.” That’s quite an expansion on “lock her up” from seven years ago, no?

Fox’s Brian Kilmeade also gets a sense of déja vu, recalling correctly that Trump didn’t follow through with Hillary Clinton despite her commission of similar 18 USC 793 crimes and the sourcing of the hoax dossier that started Operation Crossfire Hurricane:

...

It might be different this time, but not because of Trump. Several Senate Republicans demanded late yesterday that Merrick Garland appoint a special counsel to consolidate the various investigations into the Bidens. The argument is that the DoJ is already too politicized to be trusted to investigate its own chief executive and his family. Garland may have little choice but to agree — and may want this more than Republicans do:

...

Not only might Garland grudgingly agree, he might do so enthusiastically. As I wrote in my comment to this story in Headlines last night, a special counsel has traditionally acted as the best way to bury potentially embarrassing issues for years, if not permanently. Jonathan Turley has already pointed out that no one’s heard from Robert Hur for months, who’s supposedly investigating Joe Biden for alleged 18 USC 793 violations similar to those for which Trump was arraigned yesterday. Jack Smith was a rare instance of a special counsel actually charging the primary investigatory target with crimes on the core investigation, as opposed to only charging process crimes targeting underlings and tangential figures.


Appointing a special counsel allows the AG and the administration a certain distance from the probe. By choosing a special counsel themselves, Biden and Garland can make sure that it’s run by someone of their choosing, and not Republicans.

...

Finally, Trump made clear last night that Republican voters will have to choose between vengeance and reform of the Department of Justice in the next election. Trump isn’t planning to depoliticize the DoJ; he’s openly campaigning on exploiting it for political purposes against his opponents and perceived enemies. Not only is this likely to fail even if Trump gets elected, but it’s likely to create an even bigger DoJ backlash against him than in his presidential term.


We can choose that, or we can choose reform that eliminates yet another cycle of vendetta. If you want the rule of law to prevail rather than the rule of power, you have to defeat Joe Biden first. And then you need a candidate who not only can defeat Biden but is more motivated to reform the system rather than exploit it for himself.


Ron DeSantis has floated a generalized plan to restructure, relocate, and restrict the activities of both the DoJ and FBI; presumably other GOP presidential hopefuls will come up with their own plans for DoJ reform, and may come up with even better ideas. That would proscribe revenge as the authority for politicized direction would disappear, but it would also (if successful) go a long way to eliminating the most dangerous part of the “deep state.” It might not be as emotionally satisfying, but it would actually solve the problem and benefit more people than just those named Trump. It would decisively end the vendetta cycle that is currently tearing the country apart, and which might succeed in doing so permanently if continued for another four years.


The choice in this case comes down to whether we cast our votes about the future of the country or the past grievances of Trump. Trump made the argument for the latter last night; we’ll see how compelling that is when people have to finally cast ballots or organize for caucuses.