Former President Donald Trumpās Thursday courtroom tirade could backfire, legal experts warn.
Trump attorney Chris Kise asked Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing Trumpās New York fraud trial, to allow Trump to speak on his own behalf during closing arguments. Engoron asked Trump if he would agree to stick to the facts and relevant law but the former president launched into a lengthy diatribe, accusing the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James of waging a āpolitical witch huntā and demanding ādamagesā because the real āfraud is on me.ā
During one portion of his rant, Trump referred to a key allegation in Jamesā lawsuit alleging that the former presidentās Trump Tower penthouse was valued at three times larger than it actually is.
āThey made a mistake. It was an honest mistake,ā Trump said.
Jamesā team allowed Trump to speak until the judge ultimately shut him down and pleaded for Kise to ācontrol your client.ā
āThere may be a reason that Jamesā staff didnāt interrupt,ā wrote NBC News legal analyst Lisa Rubin. āThe AGās office may have struck gold because some of what Trump said was so damaging to him, especially his explanation of the triplex square footage āerror.āā
To me it feels like the lawyer was trying to make sure Trump wouldnāt be allowed to do the speech (because allowing your client to talk is always bad), but couldnāt convince him to do it himself. So he tried to get the judge to do it for him (and eventually failed anyway).
Perhaps, and also some of the emails practically read like they were dictated by Trump. I doubt if the lawyer has 100% control since surely Trump insists on things and tries to micromanage it himself.
I saw a pundit claim that you can tell some stuff was pasted in because it was in a different job, so wouldnāt surprise me.