The Worst Client in the World
One of the admonitions we have all heard for years upon years is that a client should remain silent in public and let their attorney do any talking. Because, as the Miranda Warning says, which most people know by heart, simply by watching TV crime shows, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. But what we also all know is that it is not in the Trump DNA to remain silent.
The other day, Trump posted the following on his Trump Social platform.
I was flabbergasted when I read it. On numerous levels. I mean, this reads like a comic parody in an intentionally over-the-top sketch on Saturday Night Live.
For starters, though I'm not remotely a lawyer, I would suggest that writing the words publicly, "my LOYAL aide Walt Nauta," appears to be as blatant an example of fall-on-the-floor laughable witness tampering as one could even try to imagine.
Not to mention providing explicit instructions to Mr. Nauta of what specifically his testimony should be, explaining (while not under oath) that he supposedly had told his LOYAL aide "to pack up my Personal Papers before I left the White House, I am Confident he did not place any Nuclear Secrets in the boxes."
Not to mention, "As a Navy man, Walt KNEW that would be illegal, and could even get ME in trouble."
Not to mention, "Good Luck, Walt! We are behind you all the way."
It's near-impossible for me to read that any other way. And yes, I know the concept of "His lawyers would argue that..." But I've long-since accepted that what Trump's lawyers say in public (or even in court) have a long desert to cross before they reach the Land of Reality. And in the end, I didn't say that no one could even possibly be suckered by the utter foolishness of what Trump's lawyers would insist -- just that it would be near-impossible for me to read that any other way. Or, I suspect, for anyone with a grasp of reality and common sense.
Also, while I don't believe there is a legal realty of "judge tampering," if there was, then Trump writing -- "Now Biden's Radical DOJ alleges that Walt did this, but I DON'T BELIEVE THEM! So, let's just see what Judge Canon says." The only thing missing are him adding the emojis --
😉 😉
But beyond the issue of any tampering, Trump seems to feel that that's not going far enough over the line, and so he appears to get himself in monumentally deep trouble on the actual charges against him.
For starters, contrary to what he originally insisted about having used the classic trick of Star Trek mind-melding and declassified the material by thinking it, he's saying here that not only was there nothing to declassify, but expressly stating that he didn't declassify anything. And worse, he's saying that he knows that stealing Nuclear and Military Secrets is illegal, so he can't even try to hide behind the "Oh, I didn't know it was wrong" defense gambit. (Though it's hilarious that he can't quite get himself to say that he knew it was illegal by rather used his classic, "Many people are saying" that stealing classified Nuclear and Military documents is illegal. I'm just curious what people are not saying that??? Other than, well, y'know, thieves.)
But further, what is also missing in this totally bizarre and near-inexplicable attempt at a wildly ill-advised defense is something is that has been clear and stated bluntly from the very first, and yet Trump is still trying to ignore it, no doubt to convince his gullible supporters, while hoping prosecutors might forget what they charged him with -- that that the issue is not about stealing classified material, but that taking any government documents (classified or not) and not returning them when asked and when subsequently subpoenaed to return them is illegal. Any government document. Any. As in..."any."
But leaving nothing to chance, Trump doesn't even stop there, and as reader John notes, Trump decides to go all-in and blames Walt Nauta for "Hey, whatever was in the boxes, Walt was the one put it there." Which, of course, is a doubly stupid thing to write because, not only are you trying to ensure that Nauta stays "LOYAL" (for which blaming is rarely a good tactic), but also as noted, Trump's legal problems here aren't for what was in the boxes, but rather that he himself never returned them when asked and then subpoenaed.
By the way, that sound you hear are Trump's lawyers banging their heads again the nearest brick wall they can find.
But at least they know, and we know, and most importantly of all the LOYAL Walt Nauta knows that Trump is behind him "all the way."
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