withdrawn
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
Reality Winner isn’t the rest of us. She’s just one of us.
Yes, it would be nice if Trump was treated the same as other defendants with similar flight risks, measured by their ties to family and community.
I hope release doesn’t have to do with what they were charged with (and probably overcharged with so the prosecution can offer reduced charges in return for giving up your right to a trial). It should only have to do with flight risk.
Every weekday federal courts make decisions about who will be held pending trial. Picking two cases that supposedly are the same, but really aren’t, isn’t so different, that I can see, from comparing Trump’s treatment with some very different Democratic politician Republicans don’t like.
This isn’t to say Winner is worse than Trump. I think other than honorable discharge would have been sufficient sanction for her. But as for pretrial release, Trump has strong ties to the United States, as evidenced by being the married father of a minor and currently running for federal office. Other than a mother of young children, there may be few other defendants with less chance of fleeing than Donald Trump.
Do I then think Trump was treated equally? No idea. But before saying he was treated unequally by leaving the courthouse a free man, I would want to see a statistical sample, not a cherry pick.
I think the best response is to work out a plea bargain that avoids prison. But then again, you have a client that may not take that.
So if you had to take it to trial I think the best defense is to argue lack of intent. It’s a stretch, and you’re not likely to win a trial on these facts, but you could certainly argue that he didn’t realize that these were not his own personal records when he first took them.
Obviously, though, the government will present specific examples where he seems to be discussing having confidential information. It’s just hyperbole from a man known to be a “salesman” his whole life. The government can’t prove that he was showing a classified document when he spoke to the reporters. Don’t you remember when he had a press conference with blank pages claiming it was paperwork to transfer his companies? It’s bluster, which he’s a master at.
And of course he has disgruntled employees. They aren’t reliable witnesses. Sure, they took pictures of boxes, but that’s not proof of what documents were contained within. The government can’t actually trace the lineage of specific documents- they are just pointing at boxes and claiming that they contain incriminating evidence.
So he never knowingly possessed any classified documents, and when he spoke of “secret” things he was just bullshitting. Why was he so possessive of his boxes? He believed they contained personal mementos and papers for his future presidential library.
Now, I don’t think this will work. The government is excellent at building a case with layer upon layer of credible testimony, supported by documentation.
But, as a defense attorney, i think it would get you through the trial with your dignity intact.
Which when dealing with Trump, counts as a huge win against extremely long odds.
If you win on just one count, then by definition you were not incompetent at trial.
Having spewed on my keyboard, I salute you.
Just watched half of Trump’s Bedminster speech.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Damn, brilliant performance though. Bring those $$ flowing in, eh?
I’ll take your word for it.
Oh he was in Full Trump Mode, slurping up the adulation from the audience and pounding the Master Criminal Biden, and Buttery Males spiels.
Riveting TV!
I don’t know what to make of any of today’s Live Every Second of a Motorcade spectacle. I will always think when news coverage goes apeshit over anything the tangerine taliban does, the tangerine wins on all that free publicity.
I have a crazy feeling, we don’t get to a trial. Walt takes full responsibility. The “secret” document was really from a sci-fi novel. My boss doesn’t read, so he just told the reporter what I said it was. All the stored boxes were future memorabilia for Trump’s library, yadda yadda yadda yadda.
Trump promises his family gets a free mansion, you’ll be a hero, I’ll praise your name at every rally and raise money for the prison commissary for you, yadda yadda…
Since the evidence is quite damning from photos to text messages, what other way out is there?
Cool. You sticking with “brilliant”?
(Fooling stupid people can be described many ways. Perhaps we, you and me, just use different terms.)
How do you argue lack of intent without doing the most obvious thing in the world, which would be having your client take the stand and affirm that he lacked intent?
You can’t possibly do that, of course, because—you don’t want Donald Trump to take the stand and get cross-examined. Ever, Ever. Ever.
Which destroys the credibility of that argument.
Okay, this called forth a picture of Chippendale dancers slathered in Land o’ Lakes until I got it…oh yeah…
By arguing that the government didn’t prove intent.
(Or maybe try to get his tweets introduced as evidence?)
But I think it’s ultimately a futile attempt.
Well, of course. That’s the standard tactic of defense lawyering. But without providing any first-hand evidence, and allowing the prosecution to argue in advance of your closing that we showed LOTS of testimony and documentary evidence of Trump’s willful intent, and the defense declined to produce any evidence or testimony of the lack of intent, the jury may draw its own conclusion.
Delay.
They will say the jury needs to see the secret documents to know if they are legitimate secrets. Months, or years, of pretrial struggle right there. And the Florida judge who Trump lucked out in being assigned will probably g along.
If he wins in Nov. 2024, he’ll self-pardon and deny the authority of New York and Georgia.
If he loses in 2024, he’ll run in 2028.
P.S. The other way out is to do a bang up job on jury selection. I wonder if whatever jury consultant firm has the strongest national reputation will be willing to take Trump’s money. Yes, they will know to get it up front.
P.P.S. While Trump has a good chance of beating any given rap, every time he’s indicted will make it less plausible he beats every one.
P.P.P.S. I don’t wish prison on anyone. Really. The innocent family often suffers as much or more than does the convict.
One of the talking heads on MSNBC described it as “trying to make soup out of this water” and the whole table cracked up because they knew how true it was.
I find that I do worry about this. Yes, there are boxes and yes they are full of shit he took from the White House. But if we aren’t allowed to see the secrets he stole then Trump fans are always going to believe that the government is indeed trying to frame a guilty man. Regardless, I’m pretty sure even if the boxes were completely empty, he’s still in trouble for not letting the FBI search them when they asked. I would also not want to be the lawyer who has to try to thread the needle of establishing that Trump is a liar but that somehow makes him innocent despite the obstruction of justice part.
On a semi-related note, I love how Trump’s ultimate defense to everything is “the Presidential Records Act!” We all know he couldn’t tell you a single line from that Act. He reminds me of Dave Chappelle in Half Baked, pretending to be from Jamaica. The bad guy knows he’s putting on an act but gives him a chance to try to sell it. “What part of Jamaica are you from?” Chappelle’s character, knowing absolutely nothing beyond the broadest of stereotypes, can only reply “RIGHT NEAR DA BEACH… BOYEEE!” Trump apparently thought this was a documentary.
Good point. Expert on delaying anything, really. 
He made a nice visual for his MAGAts with that preposterously large motorcade.
I don’t think that will be effective at all, that is not relevant to the case. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to delay the trial, but that won’t be one of them. A trial court doesn’t have the authority to determine whether a document is classified, or if they are “secret enough” to warrant being classified.