(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Previous Guy: repetition with expectations of different results [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-07-31

The best defense to charges you tried to obstruct an official proceeding through lies and a violent mob ... is to do it again!! Stable genius!! https://t.co/89xmzHBX7e pic.twitter.com/qoTVbP8tla

I'm not disagreeing!! If I tried to fraudulently steal an election and corruptly interfere with the vote count, and fomented violence on federal property that resulted in death, and the DOJ were investigating my conduct, I, too, would hire counsel to prepare a defense!! https://t.co/R3h2BkbJ5H

Donald Trump’s lawyers are preemptively preparing a legal defense against criminal charges from the Justice Department, as the former president’s lawyers are increasingly anxious that their client will be prosecuted for his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Members of the ex-president’s legal team have already begun brainstorming strategy and potential defenses, according to three people familiar with the matter and written communications reviewed by Rolling Stone. Trump himself has been briefed on potential legal defenses on at least two occasions this summer, two of the sources say.

www.yahoo.com/...

x Yep, I got many of those emails asking for donations to Trump’s legal defence fund starting on November 7th 2020. The Sleeper ‘Wire Fraud’ Scheme That Could Nail Trumpworld #SmartNews https://t.co/uJUb0IubAb — sharle (@sharle6) July 2, 2022

“Members of the Trump legal team are quietly preparing, in the event charges are brought,” says one person familiar with the situation. “It would be career malpractice not to. Do the [former] president’s attorneys believe everything Cassidy said? No … Do they think the Department of Justice would be wise to charge him? No. But we’ve gotten to a point where if you don’t think criminal charges are at least somewhat likely, you are not serving the [former] president’s best interests.”

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Official Trump spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

In their preparations, Trump’s team has discussed strategies that involve shifting blame from Trump to his advisors for the efforts to overturn the election, per the three sources, reflecting a broader push to find a fall fall-guy — or fall-guys. “Trump got some terrible advice from attorneys who, some people would argue, should have or must have known better,” says one of the sources with knowledge of recent discussions in Trumpland. “An ‘advice of counsel’ defense would be a big one.”

Other potential strategies include defenses based on the First Amendment and the right to petition the government over a political grievance. Such arguments are viewed internally as potential defenses against charges related to the “fake elector” scheme.

Federal prosecutors have questioned aides to former Vice President Mike Pence about Trump’s involvement in his campaign’s effort to put forth slates of those fake electors, the Washington Post reported last week. After Trump lost the election in November, his campaign and supporters recruited the fake electors to proclaim Trump to be the recipient of their state’s electoral college votes. The effort aimed to provide an air of legal legitimacy to Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories, as well as to pressure officials in battleground states to declare him the winner. The effort failed, but it has since attracted the attention of prosecutors, not just at the Justice Department, but in the swing states where Republicans assembled slates of phony electors.

If the Justice Department does come with charges, Trump’s current team has acknowledged they would have to bring on more legal firepower to handle the historic legal defense. “You’d need to have a real heavyweight at the top [of the legal team] for something like that, but right now nobody knows who that would be,” one Trump adviser says.

Some of Trump’s higher ranking legal and political counselors doubt Attorney General Merrick Garland would be willing to go through with charges. Biden’s pick for Attorney General has been long regarded as a consummate institutionalist, wary of the unintended consequences or precedents that could come from criminally charging a former president.

www.rollingstone.com/...

x Federal prosecutors have the phone records of Mark Meadows. Ginni Thomas might now want to be less concerned about a J6 committee subpoena and more concerned about the inevitable federal grand jury subpoena. — Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 27, 2022

x Trump World was assigning lawyers for lower level staffers who didn’t have access to legal defence funds and paying for them. Which seems like a very good way to control what information gets conveyed to Congress. https://t.co/kahEYojGf7 — Alexander (@purplechrain) June 30, 2022

x Trump is the only person who was involved with all the various wings of the Trump Conspiracy: legal, DOJ, Pence, Congressional Republicans, Georgia, fake electors, paramilitary, Secret Service. He’s virtually alone at the middle of the Venn diagram. — Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) July 23, 2022

x For Trump to have relied on a mastermind also cuts against his entire career. He believes he is a genius, a visionary, and a brilliant manager. He takes counsel from no one. The Trump Organization has no true #2 and never has. It only has a small circle of yes men. — Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) July 23, 2022

x And how else can we know that January 6 was Trump’s conspiracy?



Because the conspiracy initially had some momentum but then ultimately failed — like every single one of Trump’s ventures ultimately does. — Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) July 23, 2022

x .@MarkMeadows will inevitably have his “Henry Hill Moment” as a result of his post-election crimes and once that happens…you can be almost certain that he’s going to sell out Trump. @reedgalen says more about it on the latest pod: https://t.co/LP0rsZGmPn pic.twitter.com/qUclnIPfYS — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 24, 2022

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/31/2113782/-Previous-Guy-repetition-with-expectations-of-different-results-it-nearly-worked-the-first-time

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/