Thursday, January 11, 2024

That’s Just The Way It Is

When life gives you lemons, 🍋 Suck on 'em. All the cable TeeVee legal experts we have agree: the lawyers for Trump are responsible for his dark, cold day.

Well, sorta; but mostly, Trump is.
Start there: Trump never should have spoken in court today. He pushed his lawyers into asking the judge for permission, then refused to follow the rules. So the judge denied the request. Trump again demanded his lawyers ask for permission, and before the judge could get Trump’s agreement this time to follow the rules, Trump launched into his tirade. It came complete with the whine of every child told he can’t have his way: “You don’t even listen!” Except this child is a 77 year old man who wants to be POTUS. Again.

What does it say about us that he would be POTUS “again”?

As for his lawyers and their closing arguments: yes, they were a mess:
If they were really trying to attack this case, they would be saying, look, judge we think you got it wrong last fall but we respect your honest opinion. Let's talk about damages. What the attorney general wants, $370 million, is wildly inflated. The idea we should be forever barred from business in New York, that is a ridiculous result. So you take those issues on," Waxman continued. "You wouldn't be saying this whole case is not good and that there is no basis in law to have found liability. The judge has already done that. That ship has sailed." 
"It is a foregone conclusion the issue of fraud, which you could not tell if you were just listening to trump and his lawyer. That is a very important point to consider," agreed anchor Brianna Keilar.
Trump’s lawyers never should have let him speak today. Then again, they never should have put on the defense they did in the trial of this case. I’m not sure why they didn’t make a better case against the prosecution in damages, but I suspect it’s because they couldn’t get the witnesses. It’s one thing to say “What the attorney general wants, $370 million, is wildly inflated.” But if you haven’t established that in court, it’s too late to bring it up in closing.  Then again, TeeVee lawyers are not the lawyers on the case; and they always know the case better than the lawyers working it.

Sure they do.

I remember Chris Kise asking out loud why they were having this trial at all. I’ve always assumed from that, that he’d been trying to negotiate a settlement (it would have been malpractice not to). I think Kise was also referring to the expense, and the inevitable outcome. But Trump was spending other people’s money, so there was even less incentive to negotiate a settlement.  Trump has been ever convinced of the rightness of his cause, if the judge and AG would just listen for one minute!

Trump can’t imagine it doesn’t work that way.

So, having neither straw to make bricks, or lemons to make lemonade, how do they make an argument? They can only say what Trump wants them to say. Just as they’ve only been able to put on the defense Trump would let them put on, with the witnesses who would testify for him.

And the simplest fact is: Trump simply has no idea what’s going on:
The Judge cut me off in Court and would not let me explain that I was worth much more than the 4 plus $Billion (years ago) I show in the Financial Statements, which are conservatively done," wrote Trump. "Judge Engoron, curiously, cut Mar-a-Lago’s VALUE by a Billion Dollars, all the way down to $18,000,000 (and other assets as well!) to try and save the A.G.’s case." 
"What is going on here?" Trump added. "WITCH HUNT! ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"
Worth $4 billion because the ineffable value of his brand is incalculable, donchaknow? Disney’s brand should be worth as much, right? Those last phrases are simply empty shibboleths. The “facts” Trump insists on are part of that “you won’t listen” “defense.” He doesn’t like the evidence presented in court, so he denies its very reality, and insists on his own. Yeah, it doesn’t work that way, is the short answer. 

Even if you had a client who wanted to testify, and you thought that was a bad idea, and you still allowed that client to exercise their right to testify, during your closing argument, you are absolutely not allowing your client to leave that judge or that jury with the final impression of what it is that your case represents," Coleman continued. "Particularly if you know or have any inkling that that client is going to get on the stand and get in the well and gesticulate and berate the court officers and berate the judge and the entire justice system that is responsible for conducting this hearing, that you are an officiant of, as a lawyer, you're not going to do that." 
"Really absurd, bizarre, and also consistent," he added.
It may border on professional suicide, but Trump’s attorneys either put on the case Trump wants, or they withdraw. 

Or they’re just stupid:
No, I don’t have any idea, either. This is a person who is deeply, profoundly, stupid.

I don’t think Chris Kise is stupid. I think Chris Kise has gotten paid (a huge retainer), and rather than give it up, he’s going to earn it. It can’t be too much of a surprise to him the tiger he has by the tail. So long as he doesn’t cross an ethical line that could threaten his license, he’s going to keep both hands on that tail.

So what does he care if some TeeVee lawyers don’t like it? Trump is ultimately responsible for his fate and for the legal defense he allows. That’s the way of things.
The undisciplined and unhinged defenses Trump propounded today reflect the approach he has taken in the criminal cases. In his press conference after speaking at the New York trial, for instance, Trump was asked about his absolute immunity defense in the federal case, including his impunity to order assassinations. He reaffirmed his demand for absolute protection. Expect much more of these kinds of absurd and losing arguments that were on display in the civil case and that have begun to surface in the criminal ones. 
Conversely, the government’s pushback here in this civil fraud case also signals what we can expect in the criminal fraud ones. In contrast to Trump’s approach, the government systematically and carefully followed the law and evidence—only making arguments germane to the case. Given the weakness of his legal position, it looks like Trump is aiming his arguments not at the court but at a different audience: the public. But that won’t be successful, in either the civil case or the criminal prosecutions.
That’s the way governments prosecute cases: systematically, carefully following the laws and the evidence. It’s something Trump is wholly unfamiliar with (his father settled the fair housing case the government brought 50 years ago. Trump is constitutionally incapable of following suit). And his inability to understand that will be his failure.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. The Thought Criminal7:34 AM

    Well, I think that puts the end to her claim that she can pretend to be smart. And she's not pretty, either.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)