Just in case Donald Trump and his defense attorneys hoped to sidetrack Jack Smith’s prosecutors in the D.C. courtroom of Judge Tanya Chutkan next March by introducing an “advise of counsel” defense during his trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election results, Judge Chutkan yesterday placed a huge stumbling block in their way, demanding that they declare their intentions to do so, in writing, to her by Jan. 15th.
This precludes drumpf and his lawyers from trying to ambush the prosecutors with the tactic after the trial is underway, and would also require that the defense disclose ALL communications between Herr Gropinfuhrer and his clown posse of lawyers on the subject, which could ultimately lead to a spate of new charges being leveled against him:
“A federal judge has made it “Thanks to the judge’s order, Trump won’t be able to blame his lawyers for Jan. 6 without producing a wealth of otherwise privileged materials and taking the stand to testify to his own good faith. Rather than mount the defense the way the law requires, look for Trump to give it up entirely,” Litman added. a lot more difficult for Donald Trump to blame his lawyers for his election-interference case, a former prosecutor has said.
Harry Litman is a law professor at the University of California and a former federal prosecutor. He said that the decision by Judge Tanya Chutkan will probably prevent Trump from starting up “a whole lot of mischief and delay.”…
… “”Trump has repeatedly suggested that he relied on his attorneys’ advice in undertaking his flagrantly unconstitutional conduct after the election,” Litman wrote.
“Most expressly, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro claimed on ‘Meet the Press’ in August that what his client was ‘indicted for, ultimately, is following legal advice from an esteemed scholar, John Eastman.’ Lauro added that Trump was also following Eastman’s advice when he ‘petitioned Mike Pence’ to refuse to certify Joe Biden’s election,” Litman added.
Litman noted that Chutkan’s order prevents Trump from “ambushing the government at trial, a stunt I have seen defendants attempt more than once.”…
…”Thanks to the judge’s order, Trump won’t be able to blame his lawyers for Jan. 6 without producing a wealth of otherwise privileged materials and taking the stand to testify to his own good faith. Rather than mount the defense the way the law requires, look for Trump to give it up entirely,” Litman added.””
Yeah, I don’t think that the Orangeutan’s lawyers will think it’s a good idea to turn his entire mailbox over to prosecutors considering that would likely result in new revelations of seditious intent by the would be destroyer of democracy John Eastman, the drunken ramblings of Rudy Giuliani and the outright treasonous garbage spouted by Jeffrey Clark.
Of all the things that ain’t gonna happen, this is not gonna happen the most.
I guess Team Trump will have to rely on the ole “He tried to trash democracy because he is a narcissistic punk baby man who really, really, really wanted to remain President so he could use the powers of that office to avoid paying consequences for his actions…defense”
Good luck with that guys.
I’m sure Trump’s instincts will be to appeal so as to delay things. By waiting till the last possible moment. However, that clueless DC appellate panel that delayed hearing the appeal of the gag order notwithstanding the appeals court will move swiftly and prosecutors will get an emergency request to SCOTUS who will deny to hear the matter. In plenty of time for the DC trial to start at the end of March as scheduled. It’s a stupid thing for Trump to try and appeal this because he’ll want to save the issue for after he’s convicted and claim on the campaign trail he will be “totally completely exonerated on appeal” which his MAGAs will believe. If he gets shot down on this before the trial even starts that won’t play as well. Still, Trump is who he is and I find it hard to think he will sit back and play this the smart way legally. Instead he will do what he always does – lash out and waste no time doing so no matter how much his lawyers beg him to keep his powder dry.
But he’s boxed in. There are rules/laws on how to utilize an affirmative defense and as Littman (and some others I’ve seen) have pointed out for this “advice of counsel” defense it means handing over what would normally be privileged work product of the defense’s lawyers. I think even a dumbass like Trump finally realizes that no matter what he tells them his lawyers, even the caliber HE can still hire maintain records. He’s learning the hard way that when push comes to shove lawyers aren’t willing to risk prison for him!
“Esteemed scholar”? Eastman? Who in the f*ck does Lauro think he’s fooling? The entire planet has seen just how loony tunes Eastman is and if he ever was a “scholar” he left that title in the trash long ago.
he really was, once. so were several others who went bananapants when they came under Trump’s influence.
Judge Chutkan appears to be one step ahead of him this whole time. I expect she will remain that way going forward.
Trump never puts anything in writing, thiugh, nor does he ever spell out what he wants done, as Cohen and We is delivery have said. I hope that this time, believing he can claim everything is covered by executive privilege, he was,explicit as to what he wanted.