And it’s based on his “advice of counsel” defense
I hate the terminology of ‘prosecutor set a trap’ or ‘perjury trap’ if you remember when Mueller wanted to get Trump to testify under oath. It might be a trap in the sense of catching someone, but it gives off this sense of plotting and scheming to unjustly nab an unknowing innocent being that was just going about its business, like when you trap a rabbit or something.
It’s not a trap. Trump doesn’t have a good defense because he did do the thing he is accused of. A horseback cavalry charge against a machine gun isn’t “a clever trap by the machine gunner” one side just has the tools to win, and the other side doesn’t.
Yeah, it’s much more like a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” thing than a trap. Or a “backed yourself in to a corner” you might say, or, “completely fucked yourself and the prosecutor knows it and is going to use it”. But it’s only setting a trap in the sense that any airtight prosecution tactic based on rules and evidence that leaves the defendant no way out could be called a ‘trap’
I’d put just a bit more distance in there. Trap, to me, implies bait or deception being used to lure something or someone into a place or situation of your design.
Jack Smith did not design the situation that the defense team placed themselves in. I am reasonable sure he’s overjoyed that they did.
The OP article does make a good case for exactly how that defense will fail in multiple ways, from a legal standpoint.
Just came to the comments to say the same lol I love that aside from it being a checker piece, he’s somehow already down to just one even though smith only moved one pawn one space lol
If we could lock him up before election season really kicks in that would be great… otherwise I’m scared for our democracy.
Plot twist: he can still run (and be elected) from prison.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/06/trump-running-for-president-prison-00090931
Won’t happen.
First Republican debate is 8/23. We won’t even have a trial date for the Jan. 6 stuff until 8/28.
Primary calendar is here:
https://www.frontloadinghq.com/p/the-2024.html?m=1
Trump has 2 trial dates set so far, New York in March and Florida in May.
1st trial is 15 days after Super Tuesday.
2nd trial is before just a handful of states.
Caseload. The D.C.courts have 800 cases pending for 1/6 alone, not counting any other crimes.
NY most likely has similar load issues. The Florida case has the added bonus of needing lawyers with security clearances.
But why? Didn’t Biden beat him? Not that I’m a fan of Biden, but the majority of Americans dislike Trump more than Biden.
The crazies have not been getting less crazy, and they’re doing their best to convert as many fence-sitters as possible.
But its not just about who wins and who loses the presidential election. There’s also down-ticket races, as well as the increased extremism that this ongoing spectacle is pushing on all parts of the political spectrum.
“advice of counsel” is a tough defense to assert. It comes with some preconditions that could prove highly damaging to Trump as well as legal hurdles that the jury could quickly find render the defense unavailable to him.
one thing that disappears right away is your right to assert that your communications with those lawyers are “privileged.”
Skipping a bunch of the other items why it’s tough and going for the trap:
flipping attorneys is problematic, normally, because even if they agree to squawk, prosecutors normally can’t put them on a stand and ask them to testify about communications with their client. That’s because the attorney-client privilege belongs to the client. It isn’t something attorneys by themselves can decide to waive.
But here, again by putting advice of counsel at issue, Trump himself has waived the privilege.
In short, Jack Smith appears to have leveraged the advice of counsel defense by naming a bunch of lawyer co-conspirators. This could permit him to crack open the black box of the conspiracies, should any co-conspirator cooperate.
I was in civil court before and almost fucked up by submitting previous emails from a former lawyer of mine. Glad my attorney caught it and mentioned the shitstorm it would start.
What I don’t understand is how someone who has been dealing with lawsuits his whole life could be so stupid?
Look who you’re talking about. The man is highly capable of manipulating idiots and racists, but he’s no mastermind
What I don’t understand is how someone who has been dealing with lawsuits his whole life could be so stupid?
He has $40 million worth of legal advice, it’s not being stupid or uninformed. They’re giving the best possible defense, and it’s a very bad one.
Eh, he’s not exactly hiring the best lawyers. In any other situation the best law firms would be jumping at the chance to defend a former president, but due to past behaviour (not paying, not following advice, committing additional crimes, asking lawyers to commit crimes for him), he’s only hiring rubes and crazies.
he hasn’t been dealing with lawsuits.
His lawyers have been dealing with lawsuits his whole life.
It’s the same with his businesses- the ones that are successful are successful in spite of him, because somehow he got someone competent to work under him.
But he really is an idiot, and totally incompetent at everything he touches. Except maybe reality tv, because people just eat up shitty assholes there
There’s one thing he’s good at: making assholes feel good about being assholes. That’s the one thing he’s built his entire political career on.
