Trump As Criminal Defendant

"The circumstances of the recording are also revealing about how Trump operates, and the way he seems to understand bad press as a graver threat than criminal prosecution," @GrahamDavidA writes: https://t.co/feyNp59VxM

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) June 2, 2023

If you’ll recall, the tape is from an interview for a book; at least per Maggie Haberman.

The tape was not a secret recording; nearly all if not all of Trump’s book interviews were recorded in 2021. https://t.co/798IvJIcFI

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 31, 2023

Which, as I’ve also said, would explain why Trump hasn’t fired the staffer who had this recording on her hard drive. I say this because there still seems to be some surprise Trump would say this on tape, and then act like he doesn’t know anything about it:

Hannity: News broke yesterday there might be tape recording, where you acknowledged that you understood that these were classified documents.
Trump: I don't know anything about it. All I know is everything did was right pic.twitter.com/7RMmmmL5HP

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 2, 2023

But:

'They know he's busted': Morning Joe hearing Trump pals 'really concerned' about Mar-a-Lago casehttps://t.co/jV7BdO1331

— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 2, 2023

"It is so interesting, you're hearing that reporting, because I started hearing that a week ago, that despite the bravado, Trump himself and people close to Trump are really, really concerned about the documents case," Scarborough said, "and they understand that he's busted. Now, I heard that a week ago. I'm wondering if this tape had something to do with that. People who have been whistling past the graveyard the last five, six, seven years, there's been a change around Trump's people, and they know he is busted. Even Trump is deeply concerned about this."

The core fact here is that since the criminal investigations began, Trump has always been a dead man walking. He’s never had a viable defense to any of the charges. But he understands bad press more than he understands criminal justice.

I don’t think Trump was shooting his mouth off in that tape. This situation parallels his suit against Bob Woodward, where Trump claims a superior property interest in the tapes Woodward made for their interviews. When he’s talking, Trump doesn’t care. When the book comes out, he’s worried about bad publicity. It’s all he understands.

Trump isn’t a feral genius, and he isn’t coated in Teflon. He’s just never been important enough to pursue criminally. But that was then, this is now.

They don’t catch the smart ones.