Thursday, June 15, 2023

“Dinner’s On Me! I Gotta Go!”

Yes, you read that right:
"The local press was on hand to capture footage of the large crowd milling outside to greet their man. Inside the bakery, Trump supporters fawned over their man, regaling the soon-to-turn-77-year-old with a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday a day early and holding a group prayer," she wrote before adding, "A glad-handing Trump was heard to declare, 'Food for everyone!'" 
"It turns out no one got anything. Not even a cafecito to-go," she reported. "A knowledgeable source assures New Times that Donald Trump's stop at Versailles totaled about ten minutes, leaving no time for anyone to eat anything, much less place an order."
😂

And even the NYT says his party at Bedminster sucked: Trump is "preparing to hire additional lawyers": No word on success in that yet. Trump needs a CIPA specialist, and somebody who can get security clearance (emptywheel thinks Kise can't because he was a registered agent of Venezuela once upon a time. She'd know better than I would.). The odds of his success in those endeavors is low. Pundits say it's because Trump doesn't pay his bills. I suspect it's more because he's the client from hell. Lawyers work to protect their clients and counsel them on how to stay out of trouble. Trump thinks Roy Cohn's belligerence was legal genius, so he favors the "legal advice" of Tom Fitton who always urged Trump to fight, over sound legal advice that would have avoided altogether indictment in Florida. Trump really did put himself in that courtroom. I won't say he won't add lawyers to his roster; but if he doesn't get some decent legal counsel and listen to them, he's royally screwed no matter who's on the bench for his trial.

Let me just put it this way, because the course of this case in public, at least, is like something from Bizarro World:

"President Trump has consistently been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which is the only law that applies to Presidents and their records," campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said. "In the course of negotiations over the return of the documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know.’ Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the President’s home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate."

It was a statement that The Boston Globe's Kimberly Atkins Stohr found puzzling. Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, she said that this excuse makes no sense, regardless of the number of times Trump uses it.

"If that's what the legal defense looks like, Donald Trump is in a lot of trouble," she said. "This is not a Presidential Records Act case. What it states about the Presidential Records Act, is incorrect. We are talking about criminal charges under the Espionage Act, which prohibits taking of any sensitive information for national security and not turning it over. That is not in any way a defense."

Plain and simple:

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Presidential Records Act allows him to take whatever records he wants. In fact, the PRA says the opposite. A 2014 amendment added specifics to the law, particularly addressing, "public ownership of all Presidential records and defines the term Presidential records."

"The PRA changed the legal ownership of the official records of the President from private to public," says the National Archives.

It also put a process in place for those seeking records. The law does not allow a president to take documents upon leaving the White House or at any other time. 

The idea that the PRA is Trump's magic sword and shield is one he got from Tom Fitton.  To repeat: Tom Fitton is not a lawyer.  He's never even attended law school.  But he's belligerent, a la Roy Cohn, so Trump takes his advice as legitimate.  It's not.

Trump has also claimed in the past that former President Richard Nixon faced off against the Presidential Records Act and was able to take whatever he wanted. The PRA was passed in 1978 under President Jimmy Carter, and it wasn't fully implemented until after Nixon, under former President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

President and Founder of the Donald J. Trump School of Law And Chicanery Factory.

The quality of legal advice does matter.
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