Prosecutors will 'have a field day' because getting Trump to 'shut up' is 'virtually hopeless': analysis

21 August 2023

Ex-President Donald Trump was supposed to hold a press conference on Monday to reveal what he claimed would be "irrefutable & overwhelming evidence of election fraud & irregularities" in response to the forty-one felony charges that he and eighteen of his associates are facing for allegedly conspiring to steal Georgia's sixteen Electoral College votes after Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. But Trump abruptly canceled the event last Thursday, claiming that his legal team advised him that they "prefer" to pursue "legal filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful indictment."

On Monday, Time Magazine's Eric Cortellessa observes, "Trump's attorneys seemingly convinced him of one of his most sacred rights as a criminal defendant: Mr. President, you have the right to remain silent."

Cortellessa explains based on conversations with experts that "over the course of a long and arduous campaign," Trump "will have ample opportunity to pontificate on his many prosecutions, meaning his lawyers, in all likelihood, won't be able to protect Trump from himself for long." Cortellessa notes that Trump's "mastery of survival and showmanship could help him clinch the Republican nomination—with each indictment, he has soared only further in the polls—but it also comes with a distinctive risk, as Trump's comments could potentially be used against him in court."

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"No one has been able to manage Donald Trump, including Donald Trump," veteran GOP strategist Whit Ayres told Cortellessa. "The effort to do so is virtually hopeless. I can't imagine being his defense attorney in one of these trials. You'd have to drink a case of Maalox every morning just to get through the day."

Norm Eisen, former President Barack Obama's White House ethics czar who served as counsel to United States House of Representatives Democrats during Trump's first impeachment, believes that Trump's statements "can, and likely will do, substantial damage to him. Additional statements can incriminate you. They can be the basis of worsening existing charges or superseding charges. They can be utilized as admissions while the trial is being prosecuted, whether or not Trump testifies. They run the risk of witness intimidation or harassment, which violate the terms of release for federal and state law."

Eisen also recalled that "in my more than three decades principally acting as a criminal defense lawyer, the first instruction I gave my client at the very first meeting was: Shut up about this case. Do not talk to anyone. You do not know how that is going to come back to harm you."

Former federal prosecutor and House January 6th Select Committee staffer Temidayo Aganga-Williams said that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis are "going to have a field day" with Trump's outbursts "because any prosecutor would tell you there are few things more powerful than using a defendant's own statements in court." Aganga-Williams added that "you would tell jurors to act like this is any other person—if this were your son, your brother, your co-worker."

View Cortellessa's analysis at this link.

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