Attack. Attack. Attack.

Sabotage. Sabotage. Sabotage.

These two tactics have been at the heart of Donald Trump’s judicial strategy for years and are likely to be the former president’s approach to drop criminal charges against him if he sticks to his legal habits. In fact, his attacks on both the prosecutor and the judge hearing the case have already begun.

For more than four decades, Trump has filed lawsuits in civil courts again and again. In recent years, he has faced federal criminal investigations, congressional investigations, and two impeachments. He has no legal education or formal legal training, but over that long history he has become famous in legal circles for always believing he…knows better than the lawyers he hired, and then, far too often, being fired and paid late if ever to pay.

The former president is now indicted in connection with a hidden payment to a porn star in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, who has consistently maintained that he committed no crimes and will almost certainly reject any plea deal, will argue that the case is in the Manhattan Supreme Court . The legal battle will be before the same judge who presided over a tax fraud trial against the Trump family real estate company last year. – Proceedings resulting in convictions for 17 criminal offences.

The details of Trump’s defense are still unclear because specific charges against him will remain closed until his testimony on Tuesday.

However, two things are clear: The defense’s approach will include attacks on the credibility of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former mediator and lawyer, who is expected to become a key witness for the prosecution. And if the indictment is based on a legal theory that has never been evaluated by a judge, the defense will zealously challenge it.

Cohen, who distanced himself from Trump in 2018, is expected to testify in court that the former president asked him to pay porn star Stormy Daniels, who reimbursed him and helped cover up the whole affair.

Cohen was federally charged with paying the money and pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other crimes.

His guilty plea for these crimes, including lying to Congress, and his years of public statements will make him a sure target for cross-examination by Trump’s lawyers, while prosecutors are likely to counter that he lied on Trump’s behalf and that his testimony was consistent. for many years.

Attack on judge, prosecutor and witness

Judge Juan Mercan, who has earned a reputation as a thoughtful and measured man in his 16-plus years in office, maintains a busy court schedule and strives to maintain a certain level of decorum despite the often fierce fighting in the state’s criminal trials. Most likely, he will not be patient with the former president’s attack and filibuster strategy.

Merchan didn’t have to wait long to see Trump’s tactics in full bloom. On Friday morning, less than 24 hours after the indictment, the former president attacked the judge.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social website that a judge “arrested” Allen Weiselberg, a former Trump Organization CFO who is serving the final weeks of a 100-day sentence at New York’s Rikers Island prison complex after pleading guilty to the crime. . tax fraud in a case against a former president’s company.

Referring to his upcoming prosecution before Judge Juan Mercan set for Tuesday, he wrote: “The judge who was ‘assigned’ my case, which is a witch hunt, a ‘charge’ that has NEVER been brought before, HATES ME.”

Asked what the former president expressed in his post, one of his lawyers said on Sunday morning that he had no problem with the judge. “He has a very good reputation,” Joseph Takopina told CNN’s State of the Union, adding, “I have no reason to believe this judge is biased. I was not with him at the trial at the headquarters.

Tacopina also criticized Cohen’s authority, calling him a “pathological liar”.. On the same show, Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis stated that there was evidence to support Cohen’s claim.

Trump also attacked Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney.shortly after the release of the indictment. Why and who would do such a thing? Just a degenerate psychopath who sincerely hates the USA!” wrote the former president.

Visible strategy

Trump’s extremely depraved nature has made his strategy more visible over the years. He has long used delaying tactics in legal matters arising from business disputes. As a politician, he repeatedly tried to throw sand into the mechanisms of the legal system, using the slow pace of dispute resolution to bring things to a head of explosiveness.

One of the most notable examples came in the early stages of the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, which led to Thursday’s indictment. In 2019, prosecutors subpoenaed Trump’s accountants for his tax returns and other records, and the then president filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the release of documents, delaying the investigation by 18 months while the case went to the Supreme Court. Court of the United States – in two copies. (Trump lost both times.)

Similarly, when Democrats took over the House of Representatives after the 2018 midterms and began their oversight effort, Trump promised to fend off their subpoenas and raised several objections once the issues got to court. Arguments were time-consuming—briefings, arguments, and then a period given to the judges to form an opinion—and while Mr. Trump often lost these cases, he simply re-appealed and started the process all over again.

Thus, Donald Trump effectively won despite his defeat by preventing House Democrats from leaking potentially damaging information — such as the testimony of his former White House adviser about his efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation — before voters went to the polls at elections of 2020.

Christopher Case, a lawyer who represents Trump in some of his cases, defended the former president’s oft-used approach and argued that it is not much different from what happens in many court cases.

“He adopted a strategy that is consistent with what any defense lawyer would advise,” Case said in an interview.

“And the reason this strategy works is because it’s the right one,” he said, arguing that “it’s not delay after delay“.

However, he argued that Trump’s approach could be different in the case of New York.

“Transparency is his ally in this case, because the more facts come out, the more I think the public will be really outraged by the level of injustice and manipulation going on in this case,” Case said.

Timothy O’Brien, managing editor of Bloomberg Opinion and former New York Times reporter and editor, is likely familiar with Trump’s legal strategy. The former president unsuccessfully sued him for defamation in 2006 over a book he wrote about the then real estate developer, a case that dragged on for five years..

He said Trump learned from his first attorney, Roy Cohn, an intermediary who attacked the legal system by using his connections to instill fear of financial or reputational damage in his opponents.

The former president, says O’Brien, relies on “everyone else will play by the rules, and he will break them.”

Courts and public relations

During his tenure, he spoke frequently about the legal investigations he faced—so often that some of his comments turned into possible obstruction of justice charges being dealt with by special counsel, including tweets in 2018 suggesting that Cohen, whose the house and office had just been searched by the FBI, they would never turn against him.

But in previous legal embarrassments during his presidency, the system itself repeatedly defended him because Justice Department policy forbade the indictment of an incumbent president.

And then, when Trump was impeached twice by the House of Representatives, his relationship with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell meant he would never be impeached or removed from office during his first Senate trial.

During the second, on the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Republicans were largely reluctant to vote to condemn it.

However, now the former president has no “armor” to protect him as he faces the most serious threat he has faced to date.

Source: New York Times.