Facing the prospect of actually going on trial in DC Trump is signaling a major shift in his defense strategy. I wonder if he bothered to tell his lawyers? Because he’s blowing up the case they’ve been preparing!
To paraphrase the opening line of a (really) old radio show, “‘Who knows what crazy goes on in the mind of The Trump?” Well, The Shadow of the radio show it went on to say knew what evil went on but I doubt even Trump knows what’s going on in the mass of toxic sludge in his head. And heart. We do know he’s impulsive. Trump has a history of saying something with complete earnestness one day and the next saying something else about the same topic. AND denying he ever said the first thing! So this too may pass.
For today however, seeing this report from Newsweek that Trump might have begun a major shift in his defense strategy (or what has passed for a defense) in his January 6 trial. Broadly speaking it falls into a “I didn’t do anything wrong before that day, that day or after that day, everything I DID do was “perfect” and I didn’t know how bad things were at the Capitol.” It’s that last part, the “nobody told me nothin” part of his defense that’s never passed the smell test. It’s even been reported that not only did Trump spend lots of time glued to the TV coverage (seeing the same things we all did) but he even made comments about how great it all was. In between please from Wannabe Princess Ivanka and others to call off the mob. Oh, he knew damn well what was happening both before and DURING it.
Still, his best defense would be to claim ignorance and that no one really impressed on him just how awful everything was. The property damage. The injuries. The deaths. Blame it all on other people. Maybe it’s not a winning strategy with so much evidence stacked up against Trump but since in a criminal trial it takes all twelve jurors to agree playing for “reasonable doubt” to take hold with just one juror has been the strategy. Many a pundit has mentioned the “one juror can prevent a conviction” in relation to all Trump’s impending criminal trials. So, it might not be ideal but it seems to be his best chance and that’s how his defense has unfolded.
Until now.
Trump is now claimed on Truth Social that he tried to invoke the Insurrection Act on Jan. 6, 2021. Say what? And, as I asked earlier did he bother to run this by his lawyers? Trump’s TS post went beyond a mere “oops, I didn’t say quite what I meant to say.” He got rather more specific:
The post on the social media site Truth Social claims that Trump was prevented from announcing his use of the act by Twitter, now rebranded as X, which was allegedly deleting his tweets on January 6.
The Insurrection Act has been invoked only a few times in the past century, the last being in 1992 when Bush 41 invoked it to quell the LA riots that broke out in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. It’s meant for only the most extreme situations. I think most of us would agree the insurrectionist riot that took place on Jan. 6, 2021 was extreme and in a way this country has never seen. That itself would have been a huge problem because the riot was fomented by the President who would have been Commander in Chief of the armed forces “restoring order.” Well, that’s a long and complicated matter to get into and I won’t do so here.
What’s important is that if Trump is going to start saying he DID realize what was taking place and DID want to Invoke the Insurrection Act to stop the riot that’s a BFD when it comes to his defense. It also comes pretty freaking late in the legal game. It also doesn’t make much sense:
Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs analyst at Politico, wrote on X that Trump’s resharing shows that he is “promoting the nonsense idea that he wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act amid the violence on Jan. 6. If it were true (which it clearly is not), it would blow up his legal defenses and also would likely have triggered waves of violence.”
The way I see it Trump has surrendered to full panic mode. It’s frequently said Trump and his supporters keep throwing stuff at the wall in the hopes something, anything will stick. Tossing this particular piece of legally toxic (for him) at the wall could go down as one of Trump’s most boneheaded moves. I again wonder if his lawyers knew he was going to post what he did. If, as I suspect they didn’t THEY went into panic mode. First thing they did was to make sure Trump hadn’t somehow accessed their bank accounts and stolen back their retainer fees. Then move their money to brand new accounts! After that? Oh to be a fly on the wall listening in to their consultations with their client.
Trump of course thinks he knows more about any given thing than anyone else. His lawyers in the Jan. 6 case are hardly the cream of the DC legal crop but they aren’t ambulance chaser level either. Most importantly, as long as they have gotten paid in the end they will do what he tells them to do. And carefully document their advice not to employ this new strategy and instead walk back his Truth Social comments as much as possible. As quickly as possible. They don’t want to get disbarred after all!
Keep an eye on this in the weeks ahead. Trump is going to lose his immunity appeal with the appellate court. It’s only a question of how long they will dick around before issuing a ruling. If they do so quickly as they should SCOTUS will likely move swiftly. I’ve seen legal punditry saying the stay on proceedings might be lifted even before SCOTUS makes a ruling. If so we’ll know pretty quickly if Trump has decided on an abrupt and “YUGE” change in strategy. Nuking the defense he and his team have spent so much time, effort and money crafting will be a helluva thing to behold. So keep an eye on this.
the way it was supposed to go was the Insurrection Act was to
be the catalsyt for Martial Law which would have been enacted
when riots were to be put down due to the termination of the vote
counting process by Congress.
A dry run occured that rediculous day of upside down bibles and teargas. A few years prior the Michigan wowed boys did a dry run of sorts as well at the Michigan Statehouse, though The Narcissist in Chief got rattled when twitter exploded with comments about how he was hiding and scared in the WH bunker. They called him Bunker Bitch…he of course loved that!
All “brought on” by anti-fa and BLM. That was always the key to his
tyranny against America (a form of false flaggery perfected by his boy hitler.) They put on a show and made things look worse by pointing at antifa and BLM imitators injected at key points of time in dem cities.
Anyhow more active duty US troops were to be deployed when the voting machines from certain swing states were seized and the country went into turmoil as a result.
He really wanted to see dead people in the streets.
He really is crazier and deadlier than most know.
Thankfully we, our country made it through another New Year instead of nothingness had their treachery and treason succeeded beyond the events of 1.6.
Happy New Year!🤘🏼
I didn’t know anything about any plans.
I saw these bad things happening on TV.
I used my presidential powers and invoked the Insurrection Act to stop the violence at the Capitol.
He left out the part that said: That I, me, myself and I, fucking created!!! Ain’t I clever.
Too bad a$$hole, they got the tapes and the emails. You’re toast.
He has no real defense…just smokescreens, propaganda, and roadblocks.