Criminal defense lawyers typically advise their clients not to take the stand, but Donald Trump is anything but a typical client.
The former president's lawyers have made some "baffling" mistakes during his New York hush money trial, according to Politico legal columnist and former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori, but he chalks up some of those missteps to the defendant's decision-making.
"It’s also clear that Trump’s lawyers are pursuing a flawed and risky strategy," Khardori wrote. "Why? Most likely it’s not them, but him. Trump is the client, and he gets the final word on major decisions. So far as I can tell, this team has managed to stay on Trump’s good side by indulging — perhaps necessarily — his worst traits and instincts. It may be their downfall."
Lead attorney Todd Blanche opened the door at Stormy Daniels' testimony, for which the defense team appeared caught off guard by her intelligence and composure, by repeating Trump's denial of never having a sexual encounter with the adult film actress, and even their pretrial court filings sounded more like campaign statements than legal arguments.
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"Trump is largely unmanageable," Khardori wrote. "He is unfocused and not as intelligent as he thinks he is. He may have had extensive experience as a civil litigant, but criminal litigation — particularly as a defendant — is very different. Even the lawyers who have joined Trump’s legal team hoping to crack the code with him have ultimately been disappointed, diminished or both. They routinely leave or are fired. In the last year alone, these include: Tim Parlatore, Jim Trusty, John Rowley and Joe Tacopina."
Defendants are entitled to make key decisions in their cases, of course, but they should be wise enough to listen to the advice of their counsel, and Trump will soon be forced to make the most important decision yet in his legal cases – and his choices so far have proven unhelpful or worse.
"Should he take the stand in his own defense?" Khardori wrote. "The answer is clearly 'no,' and no competent defense lawyer would advise him to take the stand under the circumstances."
Prosecutors have a trove of evidence to discredit him during cross-examination, including his documented history of lying, and he's notoriously thin-skinned and unwilling to answer questions in a straightforward manner, and Khardori said both times he's taken the stand in the past six months have been a disaster.
"If Trump takes the stand, it will almost certainly be over the advice of his own lawyers," Khardori wrote. "And it could be disastrous for the former president — whether he knows it or not."
