Donald Trump is already building his defense for when he’s put on trial
In the conservative media bubble, Donald Trump is being framed by rogue FBI agents like Peter Strzok, who helped investigate Hillary Clinton’s emails and Russian interference in the 2016 election. At the time Strzok was having an affair with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, and he texted with her on FBI-issued phones. While they disparaged many political figures, Strzok sent anti-Trump messages that conservatives have seized upon.
For example, the recently-issued Inspector General’s Report included this doozy:
Page asked, “Trump’s not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”
Strzok replied, “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
Soon after Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, he discovered Strzok’s text messages and removed him from the probe. But the damage was done. Trump and his allies are laying the groundwork for the “fruit of the poisonous tree” defense, where the entire case is compromised because of Strzok’s bias.
All of this is reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial in the 1990s. All the evidence pointed to Simpson’s guilt, but his legal team used police detective Mark Furhman, who discovered one of Simpson’s bloody gloves outside his house, to raise doubts about the investigation’s credibility. Furhman was deemed a vicious racist because of inflammatory taped interviews he had previously given. Simpson’s lawyer Johnnie Cochran essentially put Furhman on trial and it worked, because his client was acquitted.
Mueller is building an ironclad case against Trump based on a mountain of irrefutable evidence and witness testimony. But the indictments aren’t ready for public consumption. Once that happens, Trump’s only hope is to give Strzok the Furhman treatment. Unfortunately for Donald Trump, his jury isn’t going to be sympathetic to this defense strategy, like the African-Americans who harbored long-standing animosity towards the Los Angeles Police Department in the Simpson case. If Trump’s trial is held in the resistance-strongholds of Washington DC, New York City or Northern Virginia, Trump is in for a world of hurt.
J.H. Norton is a communications professional, life-long Democrat, and married father of two boys living in Washington, D.C.