Former President Donald Trump's trial antics are already starting to hurt him, former federal prosecutor Harry Litman explained to MSNBC's Joy Reid on Friday — and make life hell for his attorneys.
The problem is, he explained, Trump's repeated penchant for attacking witnesses and violating gag orders has led to prosecutors keeping a witness who will testify at trial secret, and the judge allowing that would effectively be a "serious sanction" against Trump's behavior that will make preparing his defense considerably harder.
"Harry, let's get in on what the prosecutors are thinking now," said Reid. "They have to give the name of whoever that person is." She noted that authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat summed up the situation by agreeing with the former president's niece, psychologist Mary Trump: "Some individuals cannot bear the feeling of being restrained by individuals."
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"As soon as that name is released, we know what he's going to do," Reid added.
"Well, a few things," said Litman. "First, their nonrelease, it's not a small point. You can guarantee that the two Trump lawyers are going to have a hellish weekend. It's one thing to prepare solidly to cross-examine someone you know will be, but it could be anyone at all. That's a serious sort of sanction for his misbehavior. But second, yes, it is exactly as you say, there's been on the one hand, Judge Merchan made quick work of things, but yet there are these eruptions of kind of chaos and stress and we have almost a tale of two trials. And as it goes forward, those will be the sort of high points that people remember and this trial could be really freighted going forward or it could stay smooth."
All told, he added, "It's been two different kinds of weeks, it seems to me."
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