I know. Those of you who read my stuff are saying I’ve finally gone round the bend and it’s time for the men in their white coats to come and take me away to a padded room. Those not familiar with me see that headline and think “Is he crazy?” Or “What planet is he living on?” Or maybe “I’d like some of whatever that dude is smoking!”
It’s okay. I get it. Hell, when this first hit me earlier today I too wondered what the hell had infected my mind. So an explanation is in order. Here goes:
We all know and have seen too many examples of Trump ignoring perfectly good legal advice from good lawyers who really did try (hard) to save him from himself. Ignoring good advice is why he’s currently buried under several dump-truck loads of criminal indictments with a fourth ready to add to the load of legal brown organic matter he’s buried under. But Trump has ignored legal advice on lesser matters all his life. It goes back decades. This isn’t news to anyone. Neither is that fact that for over seven, godawful decades Trump has gotten away with all manner of awful, sometimes downright despicable and in some cases illegal things.
Consequences have been minimal at best. Some fines here and there and some embarrassment but the E. Jean Carroll verdict was the first time Trump got so publicly spanked. And a helluva lot more severely than Stormy Daniels did with that rolled up magazine! Trump of course didn’t learn his lesson. He didn’t let the matter go with a “I strongly disagree with the decision and will appeal.”  So he’s headed back to court where he will lose to Carroll even more “bigly”.
But that’s the rare, very rare exception and not the rule.
Trump is a brash bully who grew up rich and connected with a father who knew how to push the law to its limits. Trump also got acquainted with notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, himself a despicable man but prior to devolving too much a killer of a lawyer to have in your corner. I’m quite certain it was Cohn who coached Trump on how to push boundaries, yet give himself just enough wiggle room, especially when trying to bully opponents including those investigating him or taking him to court to avoid sanctions.
Think about it. A lifetime of shooting off his mouth about his legal troubles at any given time even before he was President. Until the Carroll verdict he’d never really as in so pointedly and publicly with the spotlight shining on him gotten nailed for it. It takes someone with guts and a LOT of persistence to force things to a conclusion and in Carroll (and her lawyers) Trump finally met his match. I wonder how many others including prosecutors that looked into his real estate/business dealings felt a measure of shame that Carroll did what they feared to do?
Trump has blustered, bullied and yes even bought his way out of legal troubles both civil and criminal. (Don’t get me started on him and Rudy G. and Trump’s “angel investment/donation that gave Rudy a war chest big enough to start attracting big money donors for his fledgling mayoral campaign. And the investigation into Trump just… wente away) My point is that starting way back with Roy Cohn, Trump has had lawyers who knew what they were doing that taught him lessons that stuck with him. Specifically:
- What civil and criminal laws he could break that prosecutors would bother going after someone as rich and connected as he was.
- How, if some legal matter went public he could bluster and via news outlets threaten those who might provide evidence against him or even continue building a case against him without crossing the legal line that a judge would sanction him for.
Just like a mob boss he had legal advice on how far he could push things and most of the time he followed it. He’s in so much trouble now because of a combination of the Presidential spotlight being so bright and unblinking that it’s forced people to try and hold him to account, and believing too much that being President absolved him of all crimes past and future. He still had some good lawyers trying to give him good advice but he had other lawyers telling him what he wanted to hear.
We know which ones he decided to pay the most attention to.
So Trump is now thrice indicted with a fourth one to drop any day now. Certainly sometime next week at the latest. Being Trump, he’s been shooting off his fat mouth at campaign events and on his own social media platform. Then late last week after the DC indictment there was the already infamous all caps if you come after me I’m coming after you statement.
Cries rose up like thunder (including from me) about how he’d violated the judge’s order already, and issued an overt THREAT. That he should be locked up pending trial. Look, we ALL know Trump was in fact issuing a threat and a wide-ranging one aimed at a lot of people. We KNOW it. Proving it in court is another matter. Oh how I so often hate “intent” because rich and powerful people get the benefit of “lack of proof of intent” in court that us regular folks don’t. I’m also sane enough and old enough to know damn well that rich and/or powerful people get legal benefits most of us don’t. That’s just how it is. As much as we have every right to be P.O.d about Trump getting away with this kind of crap when we wouldn’t that’s how the legal system is.
I read an analysis earlier today from a defense attorney that frequently collaborates with Marcy Wheeler (better known as emptywheel) that explains why Trump didn’t cross the legal lines. If you think I’M prone to long-winded articles that delve into minute detail I can assure you my stuff is like a Haiku compared to her article. But trust me, she laid it all out and legally Trump didn’t violate the terms of his release. Like a mob boss, he left himself just enough wiggle room to be able to “walk back” or “clarify” and quickly to keep the judge(s) off his a$$.
All of which brings me back to the title of this article. Yes, Trump has in fact ignored perfectly good legal advice and it’s cost him sometimes. The Carroll judgement. Paying back money from Trump U. Having “charities” dissolved. But for the most part he’d gotten away with WAY more including browbeating of and threats towards witnesses and prosecutors. Until now. And now he’s not just facing fines but felony convictions that could result in prison time. He’s in new territory and scared out of what’s left of his mind. The prosecutors at least aren’t the least bit scared of him. Oh, they don’t like the threats and especially the effect on their families but Trump knows he’s now up against people who’ve got him by the “short curlies” and won’t back down.
Still, as the analysis I read earlier today indicates what we all know to have been a threat, an actual attempt at witness intimidation is just, just inside the lines.  Trump didn’t lose control so much that he ventured over into something that can get him sanctioned although he’s playing with fire now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he trips, falls into the flames and gets burned but I maintain he’s heeding lessons long ago imparted by lawyers who carefully taught him how much he could get away with. Never forget that Trump has a long history with the legal system and is a wily old bastard. He’d have never gotten away with so much for so long otherwise, which again tells me that despite what we all think he does have some legal advice that not only sunk in but that he’s followed.
And despite that all caps threat (remember, the next day he noted that Pence had attacked him first so he was simply engaging in rhetorical political speech) that we all know was a real threat directed at countless people he knew how to keep from getting any worse than a “behave yourself MISTER Trump” from the judge.
Members of the jury, I rest my case.
Just ignore the past hypocrisy of the legal system and charge him, and lock him up for contempt of violating a court order. He’s the bully he is BECAUSE the goddamn system made him that way. Time to treat his a$$ AS ANYONE ELSE, or just forget all the horsesh*t this democracy is supposed to stand for. Until that day happens, all the phucking apologists and officers of the court are just the Dean at Farber College, and you get what you ask for. If so, then just shut the phuck up, because double secret probation is just pissing into the wind.
that’s tough Scott, I’ve followed this act for a long time. if you have staff lawyers your gold in contracts…
however
the Federal government is very special when bringing charges, our forefathers knew a political case is problematic, if the DOJ is coming for you, you plead cause
they have evidence, your done.
As Bannon,Stone, muddy the water 💧
delay,delay,delay.
As long as people keep saying “that’s just how it is”, that will continue to be how it is. Rich/famous/well-connected people get to break the law because we are complacent little sheep ALLOWING them to continue this behavior. Quite frankly, this is one site where the term “that’s just how it is” ought to disappear. Maybe it will be a beacon to the rest of the nation and that phrase will leave our vocabulary and maybe, just maybe, we will start punishing these f*cks.
Yep, you are right. That’s how it is. I’ve seen this clown since the late seventies, round about the time that he cheated his way out of the service. My mom had been on that. There was something about him fathering a child with a servant and they kicked her to the curb like used underwear. Yes Donald Trump is scum of the earth. He just knew how to talk to people. And there was Roy Cohn the lawyer and there was a prominent mobster for that side of the business. Trumps daddy made sure he got a well rounded education. This was especially helpful when they started building because they always said they used six bags of cement when they used five and they said they used ten pieces of reinforcements when they actually used eight. What are you going to do? Tear down the building to count the reinforcements. This is actually in a book somewhere that some hayseed wrote. Probably living under a different name now. The old trickster, Donnie!