With a Fool for a Client, Trump Gives Himself a Crackpot Defense
If any attorney were as smart as Trump, theyd be president instead of peddling their services for chump change, one billable hour at a time.
When Donald Trump filed the first brief in his second impeachment trial late Tuesday, he did the one thing he shouldnt: tell his big election lieonly bigger and more dangerous because he and his lawyers are now swearing to it.
The spirit of Trump suffused the assertionshe won, dammit, and the Senate is going to get an earful about itcouched in legalese and double negatives. The brief denied Trump sought to subvert the election results, which in any event he had the right to suspect werent valid. Whatever he said, including his speech to the patriots from the lawn behind the White House, is protected speech under the First Amendment and didnt incite anybody anyway. Then comes a royal head-spinner: Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th presidents statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false. Sit down and then parse: Trump denies it is false to say he won in a landslide.
Thats circumlocutious, at best, to use a word a lawyer would charge $100 for. Trump is one headstrong client and the fool is effectively running his own defense. If the brief reads a little rough, its because for a period over the weekend, Trump had no lawyers at all. Its hard to keep counsel on board when the client is determined to argue a case thats already been repeatedly and resoundingly lost. Enter Bruce Castor, best known for refusing to prosecute Bill Cosby, and David Schoen, whose client list includes dirty trickster Roger Stone and various mobsters and almost Jeffrey Epstein, who he publicly argued couldnt have committed suicide because hed been so upbeat when they met in his cell.
Alan Dershowitz declined to defend Trump this time around, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday night, because he strongly believed that Trumps approach would be a mistake tactically, and a mistake morally and ethically, to focus the defense on claims that the election was stolen. He said he would never make those arguments because I dont see a factual basis for them.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/with-a-fool-for-a-client-trump-gives-himself-a-crackpot-defense