US election 2024
Distract, offend, buy time: Donald Trump’s dirty trial tricks
Donald Trump at the New York court: Appearances like these are everyday life for the ex-president who is campaigning for the election
© Imago Images
4,000 trials in 50 years have made Donald Trump a court professional. Now that several lawsuits are threatening his personal future, he and his lawyers are in top form. They use dirty tricks to hinder the proceedings wherever possible.
The whole essence of her business partner Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss felt the effects of Donald Trump shortly before Easter: On On March 24th, the ex-US President, who was campaigning for the election, sued the co-founders the very company with which he went public two days later, on March 26th. The complaint makes nebulous talk of “spectacular failure,” and Trump even accuses them of sabotaging the IPO.
Amount in dispute: Company shares amounting to $606 million.
Why talk when you can complain?
Litinsky and Moss, two former contestants on Trump’s TV show “The Apprentice,” first sued him in February, but Trump’s counterattack makes no reference to that. So what is the cash-strapped real estate mogul about? About the principle? For money? To have sole power in the holding of his social media platform “Truth Social”? Probably about everything. For Trump, going to court quickly is a kind of negotiation tactic, a weapon to intimidate and wear down opponents and partners alike. Why talk when you can complain?
To call Trump a notorious brawler would be an understatement. The list of his lawsuits and lawsuits is about as long as Trump Tower is high: More than 4000 times He has employed judges from all disciplines in his life – as a businessman and private citizen as well as as a former US President. There shouldn’t be many tricks that he and his legal team are unaware of or that they haven’t already used themselves.
Now, in the election campaign spring of 2024, the moment has come to put the experience from decades of maneuvers to use. He has many opportunities to do this: in New York he is charged with a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels, in Washington, among other things, with the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia with attempted election fraud and in Fort Pierce, Florida Trump will have to answer for the documents affair.
Four processes of varying severity, which, based on previous experience, are unlikely to have a detrimental impact on Trump’s chances in the presidential election in November. Nevertheless, he and his lawyers leave no stone unturned to torpedo the proceedings – including personal fouls on those involved in the process.
This is how Donald Trump tricks
Georgia: The prosecution in the southern state already began spectacularly because the ex-president had to appear in prison there and the first police photos of a former US head of state were taken on the occasion. According to initial plans, the trial was supposed to take place in August, but then one of Trump’s co-defendants suddenly moved the private life of prosecutor Fani Willis into focus.
The chief prosecutor had carelessly gotten involved with Nathan Wade, the special investigator in the case. That alone represents a conflict of interest, according to Trump’s lawyers. In addition, the couple is said to have spent luxury vacations in the Caribbean with the fee that she paid him through her office. The only consequence could be Willis’ resignation and the dropping of the lawsuit against Trump, according to his defense attorneys.
In February, the prosecutor sat before Judge Scott McAfee and had him question her about the matter. In mid-March, McAfee ruled: Yes, “enormous mistakes” had been made and only one of the two was allowed to continue working on the case. Wade then took his hat off – “in the interest of democracy,” as he said. Most recently, McAfee rejected a request from the defense to stop the proceedings, citing the right to freedom of expression.
New York: Trump and his lawyers are also trying to use personal channels to put pressure on Judge Juan Merchan, who has to rule on the hush money payments case. This is where daughter Loren Merchan came into Trump’s sights. For days he attacked her on “Truth Social”: she was “a fanatical Trump hater who has admitted to talking to her father about me and wants to muzzle me,” he wrote, among other things.
Loren Merchan is the head of a PR agency that campaigns for left-wing and Democratic politicians. She apparently also posted pictures on social media showing Trump as a prisoner. She is hardly a supporter of the ex-president. Trump’s defenders derive from this the right to publicly attack the judge’s daughter, as they informed the court.
This was preceded by a so-called gag order, which prohibits participants in the process from publicly commenting on other participants in the process. This is to prevent defendants from exerting pressure or, worse, threatening witnesses. Trump had already received such gag orders in other cases. Juan Merchan recently extended the silence order to his family – despite legal concerns. It is quite possible that Trump’s people will take advantage of this legal uncertainty to have the gag order examined.
However, the ex-president initially failed in another attempt to postpone the trial. Judge Merchan rejected a request to postpone the start of the trial by three months. Trump first wants to wait for an eagerly awaited ruling from the Constitutional Court, in which the top judges will clarify whether he, as US President, enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution. If the answer is yes, it could mean the end of these or even all trials against him. Until then, the planned start of the trial on April 15th will remain.
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Washington DC: With the help of a basically simple legal trick, Trump’s defenders managed to defuse what was probably the most dangerous charge – perhaps even dismiss it entirely. In the US capital, the ex-president must answer for his role in the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 and for possible election interference. Trump did not acknowledge his election defeat at the time and tried in various ways to overturn the result. If he is convicted in this unprecedented trial, he could face years, if not decades, in prison.
In this case, too, Trump dug deep into his bag of tricks and personally attacked both Judge Tanya Chutkan and special investigator and chief prosecutor Jack Smith: He vilified her as the offspring of a “Marxist family”, and he in turn accused Smith and his wife of being him, i.e. Trump, to detest. Because of such hostility, Chutkan also muzzled the former head of state. But Trump’s urgent application to the highest US court was ultimately more efficient than his verbal gaffes.
The defendants want to know from the Supreme Court whether Trump, as US President, is immune from prosecution. In their opinion, he could not be legally prosecuted for actions that were part of his duties as head of state. The constitutional judges want to begin the relevant hearing at the end of April; the verdict is not expected to come until early summer. If the Supreme Court confirms the arguments of Trump’s lawyers, the Washington trial would have collapsed. If not, it is uncertain whether the process will be completed before the presidential election in November.
6 pictures
The fear of the special investigator
The biggest disaster for chief investigator Smith would be a Trump election victory. Because the allegations concern federal law, a President Trump could stop the entire process with a swipe – just like the proceedings in Florida over the documents affair, which were also brought by Smith.
Trump’s late teacher Roy Cohn would certainly have enjoyed the never-ending fireworks display of trickery. The clever and ruthless mafia lawyer was the entrepreneur’s very first legal advisor. Not only did he teach him how to succeed with blatant lies, vicious insults, and excessive boasting, but also that litigation spreads fear and terror in business. Litigation is very expensive and stressful, and the prospect of it alone makes most people give up in exasperation. Unless you have money. And Donald Trump has had that in abundance since he was a child.
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“The average observer must come to the conclusion that if he becomes even peripherally involved in these proceedings, he should be concerned not only for himself but also for his loved ones,” New York judge Juan Merchan wrote his most recent gag order. “Such concerns undoubtedly undermine the fair administration of justice and represent a direct attack on the rule of law itself.”
“This is Trump’s strategy”
For the lawyer Ty Cobb, who briefly worked as a lawyer in the Trump White House, this all follows a plan: “This is a clear strategy. Trump’s attacks are part of his constant attempts to delegitimize the proceedings,” he told Politico magazine. Whether he will get away with it has not yet been decided. But he has already gained time.
Sources: Gizmodo,”The Hill“, “Politico”“Forbes“, DPA, AFP, Yahoo NewsReuters, PBS, CNN“The Atlantic,” “Washington Post“, USA Today