Trump’s freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness speaking style draws legal attention amid probes

May 23, 2023, 9:13 PM

FILE - Former President Donald Trump, left on screen, and his attorney, Todd Blanche, right on scre...

FILE - Former President Donald Trump, left on screen, and his attorney, Todd Blanche, right on screen, appear by video before a hearing begins in Manhattan criminal court, in New York, May 23, 2023. Trump speaks about his legal woes in a way that would make most defense attorneys wince. The former president has never hesitated to offer his opinion or joust with his antagonists. But legal experts say Trump's freewheeling speaking style could give prosecutors additional ammunition to use against him in court. (AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump speaks about his legal woes in a way that would make most defense attorneys wince.

A recent sampling: In a March interview on Fox News, the former president said he had “the right to take” classified documents with him to his Florida resort and wouldn’t say he hadn’t looked at the records since leaving office. During a CNN town hall this month, Trump said he told a Georgia elections official “you owe me” votes in the 2020 election.

At the same town hall on May 10 he insulted a female writer as a “wack job” — only a day after that same woman, On Monday, Carroll amended a lawsuit to hold him liable for the town hall remarks.

Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has never hesitated to offer his opinion or joust with his antagonists. The problem, legal experts say, is that the former president is under intensifying scrutiny from state and federal prosecutors, and those same prosecutors can use the former president’s statements against him in a variety of ways.

“Any utterances by a defendant, whether they are confessions, denials, observations, nonsensical gibberish, or just plain goofy are nothing but pure gold for prosecutors,” said Julieanne Himelstein, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington.

Trump has found himself under investigation by prosecutors stretching from New York to Georgia.

He was set the trial to begin on March 25, in the midst of the primary contests. Trump, appearing via video conference, threw his hands up in frustration at the timing of the trial and glowered at the camera.

A local prosecutor in Georgia is investigating whether the former president and his allies broke the law in seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested last week that indictments could come in August. Meanwhile, a Justice Department special counsel is probing the former president’s role in the Jan. 6., 2021, insurrection and the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Largo, Trump’s Florida home and resort.

In recent media appearances and during rallies, Trump has made comments that could be seen as incriminating or, at the very least, complicate his legal team’s ability to beat back charges. He seemed to get into particular trouble during a May 10 town hall hosted by CNN.

The former president spent nearly an hour discussing a range of issues while also commenting on the investigations in ways that run counter to generally accepted legal advice. Not only did he re-insult Carroll and provide Fulton County’s prosecutor more fodder for her probe but he also gave the Justice Department an opening by claiming he couldn’t recall whether he had shown classified documents to anyone.

Joyce Vance, a law professor who served as a U.S. attorney in Alabama under President Barack Obama, opined on Twitter: “There were prosecutors and agents taking notes tonight.”

Trump also suggested that he was personally involved in taking records to Mar-a-Lago — “I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified,” he said. That statement is at odds with arguments made by his own lawyers, who as recently as last month suggested in a letter to Congress that the document removal was the “result of haphazard records-keeping and packing” rather than an intentional decision by Trump.

The statements are being made as the documents investigation shows signs of winding down and as Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith zeroes in on the question of potential obstruction, drilling into the failure by Trump and his representatives to return the classified records in his possession despite being issued a subpoena to do so.

Trump’s penchant for public statements was on display in the last special counsel investigation he faced. He famously told an interviewer in 2017 that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he fired former FBI director James Comey. His lawyers sought to explain away that statement by noting that he had also said that he knew that firing Comey would prolong, rather than shorten, the Russia probe.

Legal scholars said that prosecutors might not be able to use some of Trump’s comments if they are not relevant to the charges or might be deemed prejudicial by a judge.

They also may not need to play them to jurors because other evidence is much stronger. While Trump said on CNN that he told Brad Raffensperger “you owe me” votes, he was also tape recorded asking the Georgia elections official to “find” him more votes. The call came in January 2021 as Trump was desperately trying to overturn Georgia’s election result.

“It’s not inculpatory any more than the fact that we already have a recorded phone call,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. “It might be more damning had we not had the actual recording of the phone call.”

Former prosecutors and defense attorneys say a client’s public comments can hamstring how they present their cases to a jury. It can reveal their strategy and lock them into certain lines of attacking the prosecution’s case. Such comments might also encourage them to do everything they can to keep their client from taking the witness stand.

For example, they said, Trump may have admitted to taking classified documents from the White House but his lawyers wrote, “The purpose of this letter is not to opine about whether these documents are actually classified or have been declassified.”

If Trump were to ever testify, prosecutors could use such contradictory statements to poke holes in his story, making it harder for his defense team to tell the jury a coherent narrative.

“It could well be that what Trump is doing is making it impossible for him to testify because he’d be so damaged were he to testify,” said Richard Klein, a criminal law professor at Touro University in New York.

United States News

File - Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses the Apple Watch at the Apple event at the Bill Graham Civic Aud...

Associated Press

Apple is expected to unveil sleek headset aimed at thrusting the masses into alternate realities

Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination. After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement to be made Monday […]

4 hours ago

FILE - A person, reflected in glass, walks near the Tropicana Las Vegas on May 16, 2023, in Las Veg...

Associated Press

Las Vegas ballpark pitch revives debate over public funding for sports stadiums

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Gov. Joe Lombardo wants to help build Major League Baseball’s smallest ballpark, arguing that the worst team in baseball can boost Las Vegas, a city striving to call itself a sports mecca. Debate about public funding for private sports clubs has been revived with the Oakland Athletics ballpark proposal. The […]

1 day ago

FILE - Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., speaks at an ...

Associated Press

Carter and the Kings: A friendship and alliance — but after MLK’s assassination

ATLANTA (AP) — The voice of Martin Luther King Sr., a melodic tenor like his slain son, carried across Madison Square Garden, calming the raucous Democrats who had nominated his friend and fellow Georgian for the presidency. “Surely, the Lord sent Jimmy Carter to come on out and bring America back where she belongs,” the […]

1 day ago

Last seasons plant stalks are seen at Seth Jacobs' marijuana planting field at his Slack Hollow far...

Associated Press

Slow start to New York’s legal pot market leaves farmers holding the bag

ARGYLE, N.Y. (AP) — Seth Jacobs has about 100 bins packed with marijuana flower sitting in storage at his upstate New York farm. And that’s a problem. There aren’t enough places to sell it. The 700 pounds (318 kilograms) of pungent flower was harvested last year as part of New York’s first crop of legally […]

1 day ago

FILE - Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions con...

Associated Press

Wisconsin Republicans look for rebound, Democrats stay on offensive as 2024 fights loom

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin once again be a battleground. Democrats, recognizing that four of the past six presidential elections in the state have been decided by less than a percentage point, are trying not to become overconfident in the face of recent gains. They are gathering for their annual state convention starting June 10 […]

1 day ago

Associated Press

Michigan wildfire prompts evacuations, threatens multiple buildings

GRAYLING TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A wildfire in Michigan burned more than 1,000 acres (1.5 square miles) and prompted emergency evacuations and road closures Saturday, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The wildfire located within Grayling Township, about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Grayling, is moving west and southwest and threatens multiple […]

1 day ago

Sponsored Articles

...

SANDERSON FORD

Thank you to Al McCoy for 51 years as voice of the Phoenix Suns

Sanderson Ford wants to share its thanks to Al McCoy for the impact he made in the Valley for more than a half-decade.

(Photo: OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center)...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

Here’s what you need to know about OCD and where to find help

It's fair to say that most people know what obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders generally are, but there's a lot more information than meets the eye about a mental health diagnosis that affects about one in every 100 adults in the United States.

...

Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

Company looking for oldest air conditioner and wants to reward homeowner with new one

Does your air conditioner make weird noises or a burning smell when it starts? If so, you may be due for an AC unit replacement.

Trump’s freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness speaking style draws legal attention amid probes