Trump's Lawyers Might Think They Just Won. They Still Botched the Case.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Donald Trump has a history of using questionable lawyers to his advantage. From the disbarred Roy Cohn to fixer (and felon) Michael Cohen, Trump used lawyers as a tool to expand his empire. As president, he used unethical lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman to carry forward schemes to hold onto power. Even when those lawyers got into trouble, Trump has managed to avoid serious consequences.

But now Trump’s attorneys have managed to help him get into a legal jam the likes of which he has never faced. Whether out of incompetence or a desire to please their notoriously rules-averse client, they have committed a series of unconscionable errors that turned the government’s document recovery effort into an ongoing criminal investigation of the former president that could result in an unprecedented criminal indictment. Monday’s ruling by a judge agreeing with Trump’s request to appoint a third party to review the documents might look like a win, but it is a limited response to a catastrophe that they could have avoided.

What is almost as shocking as the jeopardy Trump now faces is how easily it could have been avoided with even a modest amount of competent legal advice. Obviously, a lot of this is Trump’s own doing. He is ultimately responsible for the decision to bring tens of thousands of government documents — many of them highly classified — to his country club home in Palm Beach. But one reason lawyers have jobs is because their clients have already made poor decisions. A good attorney quarterbacking this situation for Trump would have prevented those bad decisions from compounding by ensuring his residence wasn’t searched and negotiating a deal to avoid any risk of criminal charges.

Trump’s lawyers’ performance here is a case study in poor defense. Instead of cooperating with the government to negotiate the return of its records when this was a civil matter, Trump’s team produced boxes of haphazard records that contained classified documents that were not organized and appear not to have been reviewed or catalogued prior to production. Once a criminal investigation was open, instead of negotiating a deal with DOJ, Trump’s lawyers lied to the Feds and made themselves witnesses (and potentially subjects) in the criminal investigation, making criminal charges against Trump more likely.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-trump-s-lawyers-might-think-they-just-won-they-still-botched-the-case/ar-AA11wK5g

[NJCher]

1. this author is

qualified to know. Here's a little backround from Wikipedia on him:


Renato Mariotti is an American attorney, legal commentator, acting fill-in anchor for WGN-TV and former federal prosecutor. On October 26, 2017, he announced his candidacy for Illinois Attorney General, but he lost in the Democratic primary election.Wikipedia
Born:
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education:
University of Chicago (BS), Yale University (JD)
Occupation:
Attorney, pundit

[underpants]

2. Good article. "act of production" immunity I just learned that

Very sound advise but he (and we) don’t work around Trump everyday. From what I’ve put together he’s a raging madman who acts like 4 year old child throwing a fit. The biggest part of his staffs’ day is simply trying to head off or limit his rage. I think he thought he was pulling one over on NARA and DOJ. He really has no reference for people who are good at their jobs.

He started a pissing match and now he’s all wet.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. It did however confirm

That "Federalist Society" judges are predictably corrupt and unattached to the rule of law- especially Trump appointees.

Not to be trusted at any level.

[NJCher]

4. yes, and

there's only so much they can do when there is an erratic nutcase like trump.

Of course, trump is the exception and these judges are going to be there for their lifetimes, for the most part. Not all their clients will be self-damaging nutcases like this, so they are indeed a huge liability for the left.

[NJCher]

5. The Keystone cops of lawyers

It's worth reading because it shows how completely and totally trump is his own worst enemy. As a result of his actions, he's now fighting DOJ in an easy-to-prove case. From the article:

"The time to seek accommodations from the government was when NARA was the counterparty, not the DOJ."

Had he paid his attorneys so he could at least get a worthwhile, competent one, he could have been arguing with the National Archives.

If you had to go into a gun battle, who would you like to have it out with? Some librarians or the DOJ?

The attorneys he hired took the wrong action at every turn. The writer tells what advice he would have given, which to me seemed sensible and probably something the gov't would have gone for. The gov't wouldn't have done a damn thing and we would all be chewing nails here because he "gets away with everything."

This writer then points us to another article he wrote (which is at Slate) and which I have yet to read. It is about how this case is like a drug case.

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to live around someone so incompetent at basic life skills? I've worked for many an incompetent boss and I was on pins and needles all the time about how we were going to survive. If you were trump's kid and had any sense (not saying they do), it would be like being on the the Titanic, feeling like you're going down for something like 35 years.