Highlights:
As prosecutors and lawyers for Donald Trump spar over the former president’s public statements, Trump the candidate keeps saying things that could hurt Trump the defendant’s chances in court.
Some of Trump’s public statements have already gotten him in legal hot water, with a partial gag order issued in a civil business fraud trial that is underway in New York, and a hearing Monday on a broader possible gag order in Trump’s D.C. criminal case.
Lawyers said such public declarations are deeply damaging to his defense, as he regularly appears to admit, on video, to particular elements of the crimes he is accused of committing.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Yet at a Wednesday night rally in Florida, Trump boasted anew about information that he suggested might be classified, and he repeated past claims that he was justified in keeping sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club.
Asked for comment, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said he and his lawyers “are fighting together — in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion” against what they charge are leaks by the Biden administration and politically motivated prosecutions.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” last month, Trump kneecapped a key defense strategy his lawyers have raised in that case — that he was fighting the election results based on advice from attorneys.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan — who is overseeing Trump’s pending D.C. election-obstruction trial — will consider a broader gag order to prevent him from intimidating witnesses or tainting the jury pool in that case.
One adviser, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said that the indictments had helped Trump with a political problem: Small-dollar donors were not giving at levels like they had in the past, and some data showed sagging enthusiasm for his candidacy.
One former Trump lawyer said that during the investigation of potential Russian interference in the 2016 election, the president’s attorneys urged him in an Oval Office meeting not to tweet about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III or the probe itself.
The original article contains 1,834 words, the summary contains 242 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!