This is just getting weird

| 9:09 am EDT July 8, 2023
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When it comes to the kind of people you find in Trump world – or really anyone in Republican circles in general – nothing ever comes at face value. These are the types who will publicly insist they’ll never cave or flip no matter what, only to turn around and do precisely that once it suits them. So you never take them at their word. But their actions sure do tell a story.

Take, for instance, the pair of developments on the Trump attorney front over the past twenty-four hours. First came the revelation, strangely buried in a DC Bar report recommending the disbarment of Rudy Giuliani – that Trump apparently waived attorney client privilege with Giuliani at some unknown point in the past. Then came the revelation that attorney Alina Habba was withdrawing from representing Trump, and is instead taking a job at a Trump PAC. So what’s going on here?

To be clear, the Trump-Giuliani news wasn’t supposed to come out today. Whatever transpired that prompted Trump to waive attorney-client privilege with Giuliani, neither of them ever publicly announced it. Nor did any prosecutor. So how did the DC Bar find out about it?

More importantly, did Jack Smith already know about it before the news broke? He had to have, right? This is what Giuliani was doing with his proffer interview last week, right? Giuliani used whatever dirt he’s been holding over Trump as leverage to force Trump to waive attorney-client privilege, so Giuliani could then go and tell Jack Smith about every crime Trump ever committed… right? Except this sounds like the strategy of a competent villain, and Giuliani is about forty ounces removed from competence.

Then there’s the weirdly timed Alina Habba move. Sure, she’s not even the first or second Trump defense attorney to leave the team within the past month. But why did Trump move her to a do-nothing job at his PAC? Why is he trying so hard to keep Habba loyal, even while parting ways with her? Is Trump so stunned by Giuliani’s proffer session betrayal, he’s afraid Habba will end up doing the same?

Given the timing of what all is transpiring, it all seemingly ties together. It’s just difficult to figure out with any certainty how it all ties together. Trump bizarrely waived privilege with an attorney who then turned around and sold him out to the DOJ, and now Trump is removing another attorney from his team but making sure to compensate her on the way out the door. Trump has dragged so many of his attorneys into potential criminal liability of their own, it’s not surprising to see all of this playing out. But it sure is getting weird. It’s also seemingly the latest sign that more indictments are coming sooner rather than later.