Donald Trump’s lawyers reveal that they expect Trump to be criminally charged by the DOJ
Earlier this week Rolling Stone reported that Donald Trump’s lawyers were working on a criminal defense strategy in case the DOJ criminally charges Trump. At the time, we pointed out that Trump’s own lawyers appeared to be the source of the reporting (who else could it be?), and that Trump’s lawyers appeared to be trying to use the press to reassure Trump that they hadn’t been caught with their pants down when the Washington Post confirmed last week that the DOJ was several months into investigating Trump. Now the plot has thickened.
CNN is reporting this evening that Trump’s lawyers are now in talks with the DOJ about the criminal case against Trump. Specifically, CNN says that “The talks revolve around whether Trump would be able to shield conversations he had while he was president from federal investigators.” Given the point of view of the reporting, and the fact that the DOJ would never leak something like this, it’s pretty obvious that Trump’s own lawyers are once again the source of the reporting. But why?
This feels like Trump’s lawyers are attempting to control the media narrative about the DOJ investigation into Trump, knowing that the DOJ will be hesitant to correct any slant that Trump’s lawyers put out there. Days ago the DOJ moved to try to compel the likes of Pat Cipollone to not only testify to a grand jury against Trump, but testify about supposedly “privileged” conversations they had with Trump. It sounds like Trump’s lawyers are trying to make the case to the DOJ that such conversations shouldn’t be included. That won’t get them anywhere. But by telling the media that they’re “in talks” with the DOJ, it makes it sound to audiences like they might have a chance of getting somewhere. And of course Trump’s lawyers are pandering to an audience of one.
All that Trump’s legal team has really done here is to give away that it expects the DOJ to criminally indict Donald Trump. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be bothering to try to control the narrative like this. Meanwhile the Garland DOJ, which has repeatedly made clear it doesn’t give a damn about antics or distractions, is going to do what it’s going to do – no matter what kinds of headlines Trump’s legal team manages to generate in the mean time.
