Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said that the ex-president was involved in all of the decisions about his defense and wanted to be the litigator.
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Jesse Watters asked on Fox News how involved Trump was in his own defense.
Blanche answered:
What do you think? Very involved. He’s a smart guy, he knows what he’s doing. He jokingly said to us a lot that he wanted to be the litigator. You want to be the one that was actually arguing because he’s a smart guy and he knows what he’s doing. We made every decision together. There were things that he was frustrated with. The judge several months ago, we wanted to be able to argue reliance of counsel, to some extent he was relying on his lawyer and the judge wouldn’t allow us to do that. Thank like that where he would really push us into why can’t we do this or that. It was an honor for me to spend the last six weeks with him, defending him. We got a bad result today. It’s not over at all but it was great.
Video:
Todd Blanche says Trump was very involved with the decisions about his defense, ” He wanted to be the litigator. You want to be the one that was actually arguing because he’s a smart guy and he knows what he’s doing. We made every decision together.” pic.twitter.com/9Z5Xe2S3DI
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) May 31, 2024
Aaron Blake of The Washington Post pointed out:
Very interesting comments that will invite plenty of reading between the lines.
Just yesterday, Andrew McCarthy wrote that Trump’s defense suffered because “Trump insisted that his lawyers subordinate his defense at trial to the political narrative he wants.”
While being very complementary to Trump, it is impossible to escape the sense that he was also creating some distance between himself and Trump’s defense. The coverage provided by reporters inside the courtroom suggested that Trump was very involved in directing his defense.
If Trump was running his defense, it explains why the jury needed about 9 hours of deliberation to convict him of 34 felonies.
Trump has always claimed that he is smarter than the lawyers, and he proved it by smarting himself into 34 felony convictions.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelorâs Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association