Oh good, even more bad news for Donald Trump
What a day Wednesday was in Trump world. Most of the major networks were covering the hearing in Fulton County, where cameras are allowed in the courtroom. Two of the RICO defendants, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, moved to have their trials separated from the remaining 17 defendants. Judge Scott McAfee granted their request-sort of. He separated them from the other 17, but now, Chesebro and Powell will be tried together on October 23. That’s not exactly what they wanted. Both sets of attorneys argued that the charges against Chesebro and Powell aren’t related, but prosecutors argued that all charges against all defendants are part of the racketeering conspiracy.
While all defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty, Sidney Powell has the most interesting plea. According to USA Today, Powell claims she wasn’t working for Donald Trump or his campaign when she paid people to break into voting machines in Coffee County. She was also involved in the December 18 White House meeting, where Trump discussed making her “special counsel” with broad powers to investigate [non-existent] voter fraud, but White House attorneys argued down the [bad] idea. Even as CNN was reporting on this ruling, they cut away for even more interesting news.
Yuscil Taveras, who was identified in the classified documents case as “Trump Employee 4” has struck a deal with the Special Counsel. This deal will save Taveres from prosecution in the case, and that is not good news for Donald Trump. Taveras has agreed to testify, and if his testimony was useless, he wouldn’t be getting a deal. Stanley Woodward, who briefly represented Taveras and Nauta, claimed that Taveras was never offered a deal under his representation. Well, duh. That’s because Woodward had a clear conflict of interest since Taveras will now likely testify against Nauta, and the Special Counsel’s office wasn’t touching Taveras until he secured an independent lawyer.
Woodward claims that the way the prosecutors handled Taveras’s testimony was “improper.” No, that’s how things work. Prosecutors will always go after the proverbial low-hanging fruit, and since he had not yet been charged, Taveras was “ripe for the picking,” if you will. He is obviously privy to the attempts or requests to delete surveillance footage since he was the IT manager. Woodward provided no shocking information. When faced with the prospect of criminal charges, a witness will always change his tune. Likely worse for Donald Trump and his lawyers is Trump’s announcement that he will testify in all the criminal cases. The prosecutors are likely grinning and rubbing their hands together. They can hardly wait to get that professional liar on the stand.
As Newsweek pointed out, this is a very risky move on Trump’s part, but Trump is so arrogant that he might just do it. Trump always talks a big game with nothing to back it up, and this is no different. He has not done well in depositions, which are practice sessions for trial, and his performance will get no better when he swears to tell the truth. Trump can’t handle the truth.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years