Saying you’re “humbled, contrite and extraordinarily remorseful” is very likely a major reason he got 4 years and 4 months rather than 6 years and 6 months. It pays to play the game, sincere or not.
Ryan Kelley, who ran for the GOP Governor nomination in Michigan in 2022, has pled guilty to a misdemeanour charge of improperly entering the Capitol grounds on January 6.
The arraignments are wrapping up, next court date on the 18th. Some of them seemed really surprised that there are consequences to forging elector certifications.
On the one hand, if Trump thinks this will in any way help him, I’d encourage him to continue talking or posting on social media or scratching out the names from whatever book report he was forced to write in sixth grade (but until now hasn’t found time to actually finish), replacing them with “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” and finally handing that in.
On the other hand, are Trump’s lawyers completely unable to convey the idea to him that there is absolutely nothing at all that he can say out loud that will change his situation for the better? I know defendants can appeal for ineffective counsel but can lawyers appeal for “client with no sense of self-preservation whatsoever”?
I am willing to bet many, many people over the years, including Trump’s attorneys, have tried very hard to explain the issues and stop him from torpedoing his own case. Trump simply doesn’t listen and, so far, it has actually worked for him. Against all odds. Yet, here we are.
It’s so weird that Trump isn’t instead planning to turn that report over to a judge, while he’s under oath. Trump supporters, golly by gosh, I sure do wonder why that is. You must, too, right?
At least in the DC election fraud indictment, people are on record trying to warn Trump and his co-conspirators that what they were doing was illegal and would be damaging to them, and they did it anyway. Trump does not hear things he doesn’t like, and surrounds himself with people that tell him what he wants to hear. When they say things he doesn’t like, he gets rid of them. This is all now documented for the public.
What kills me about this is it has apparently worked for him his whole life. And he has failed at just about everything he has touched. I just can’t get my head around that.
I think he was just such a miserable puke of a human being that no one wanted to take him on, so no one ever did.
I don’t care what job you have, there is always one customer, client, patient, lawyer, defendant, fill-in-the-blank individual who is so horrible, everyone just kind of lets them get away with their hideous behavior rather than take them on. People are confrontation-averse.
Trump doesn’t hold back and there is no low to which he will not stoop. Smear one of your beloved family members and endanger their life? Why not do it to all of them?
I’ve never forgotten the story Rusty Bowers told when he testified to the January 6th Committee about the pressure campaign Trump and his henchmen brought to bear when Bowers refused to go along with the election subversion plot:
Trump’s not-so-secret sauce is to be so gawdawful that normal people just back away. It’s worked well for him up till now.