This Is What’s Wrong…

Former Trump WH lawyer Ty Cobb on Trump promising to release a “large complex, detailed, but irrefutable report on the presidential election fraud”:

“There’s a good chance that whatever document he produces ends up as evidence against him. It could even end up as the basis for… pic.twitter.com/gEycQUntC0

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 16, 2023

...with trying cases in public rather than in court.

Trump can scream about “But muh free speech!” in jail.

I agree with Brian. Whether the Georgia case is subject to removal raises a question about the scope of the federal officer removal statute.

But even if Trump succeeds in removing the case, the offenses are still Georgia state crimes, not federal offenses subject to Article II. https://t.co/doyyqxsKNd

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) August 15, 2023

I’m pretty sure this is what Tom Fitton has told Trump about removal to federal court.

“Being an inveterate liar is a major liability in litigation.” https://t.co/lSWksJdxoT

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 16, 2023

Litigation complexity is hard enough to manage with a client who plays it straight, both with the court and with their own counsel. But Trump doesn’t play it straight—he never has, and it appears he’s constitutionally incapable of doing so. So he will lie: in court, in public, on social media and—fatally—to his own lawyers. Simply put, Trump’s defense teams will not be able to keep track of all the different positions their client has taken (or directed his various lawyers to take in different proceedings), and eventually things will come completely unraveled. Judges will become increasingly disgusted by the shenanigans and stop giving Trump any benefit of the doubt; there will also be internecine squabbling among members of his defense teams, and some will likely quit when they refuse to execute some of their client’s more unethical demands or realize that he has no qualms about taking them down with him when the time comes.

Even the “Dream Team” would stagger under the load of four criminal cases against one client.

One last point. These three dynamics are not isolated and discrete; instead, they’re dynamic and mutually reinforcing. Being an inveterate liar is a major liability in litigation. So is being openly disdainful of the entire process. And so is complexity. But put all three of those together at the same time for the same defendant, and his goose is cooked. So you can put a fork in Donald Trump—he’s done.