Considering Trumps Legal Position (and Problems) After the New York Times Interview

[n2doc]

By Bob Bauer Thursday, July 20, 2017, 11:30 AM

This morning, Benjamin Wittes wrote in strong terms about the extraordinary interview the President gave the New York Times and what it reveals about Trump’s understanding of legal institutions and the rule of law. The main theme playing through Trump’s comments is that, as President, he has a clear call on the loyalties and responsiveness of Department of Justice and the FBI. In this case, as in others, the President displays an ethical posture defined by a narrow and intense concern with his own interests. This is an ethics that may have served him well in business. However, it will have disastrous consequences when carried over into the exercise of his public responsibility as President—a duty to act on behalf of others. Ben suggests the DOJ officials should resign in protest; Jack Goldsmith answers that this would be counterproductive and that the most appropriate strongest response would be for all concerned in senior law enforcement to just do their jobs.

There is also another set of questions that the president’s comments raise—about the nature and structure of his legal defense, and about the further harm Trump may have done to his legal position.

Did his lawyers know of this interview, approve of it, or prepare him for it? It is hard to believe that they did any of this. Normally, lawyers would suggest that the client stop commenting on a pending case, but maybe this president’s lawyers do what they can and just fail time and again. But there are comments and then there are these kinds of comments: whatever the lawyers, perhaps in desperation, give the president latitude to say, it seems impossible they would have advised him to offer up what he did, with gusto, to the Times.


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https://lawfareblog.com/considering-trumps-legal-position-and-problems-after-new-york-times-interview

[Gothmog]

1. I have trouble believing that any lawyer would let trump do this interview

[COLGATE4]

2. Trump's lawyers get the same degree of attention from Dumpy

as most other people around him - he pays absolutely no attention and merely has them around to have someone to place the blame on when the shit hits the fan.

[Gothmog]

6. Trump is a bad client-he does listen to his attorneys and he does not pay his bills

Trump is going to find that this interview will come back to hurt him down the road

[gratuitous]

3. Trump understands his own business model

The idea that he's in a position of public trust just doesn't register with President Trump. It's another business venture, and the Department of Justice under the Attorney General is supposed to function like his personal attorneys function when he's dicking over some rubes. If the other side trusts Trump's word on anything and don't check it out for themselves, they deserve to get screwed. Trump's attorneys will draw up the contract as much as they can in his favor. If you don't like it, you can spend a lot of time and money wrangling over better terms, but it you're too concerned about your own interests, Trump just moves on to the next sucker (and there's always a next sucker).

The government, of course, doesn't work like that. But nobody in the Executive Branch is going to explain that to Trump, and nobody in the majority of Congress is going to stick his neck out for America against Trump. Until he is forcibly stopped, he will continue on and the United States will grow weaker and more irrelevant on the world stage. We've already given away our moral standing on war crimes and crimes against humanity, and we're going to compromise our integrity on so many other issues and in so many other ways in the months to come.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. Why is Trump sitting for exclusive interviews with the "failing" NYT?

And why do NYT reporters let him spout crap without following up?

[irisblue]

5. Maggie Habermann, one of the I interviewer authors has been writing about trump for at least 10yrs

He seems to trust her.