The Ridiculous Legal Claims of Donald Trump

There is a Two-Tier System of Justice; It's Just in Favor of Trump

PurpleAmerica

and

Robot Jim

Mar 19, 2024

Today’s post was by PurpleAmerica fill-in, RobotJim

“What do you know about it Capone. What did you do to get in here?”

“Me? Lawyer f**ked me over. Everyone’s innocent in here. Didn’t you know that?”

Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

There is an old adage among lawyers that says, "If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table."

I’ve never seen anyone pound the table as hard as Donald Trump. Since he rarely actually pays his lawyer fees, and most quality lawyers stay as far away from him as possible, all he can get are legal hacks who don’t know what they are doing, so he pounds the table even harder. His entire legal strategy seems to be to lose the cases, but convince the public he was wronged because of politics. Well, that and delay any case verdict until after he takes office when he can just summarily pardon himself for breaking any laws.

So let’s discuss some of those arguments and demonstrate how truly awful they really are:

“The prosecutor/judge/jury/media/bailiff/etc hate Trump.” One of the basic rules of all of his arguments is that he is a victim. Always a victim.

“It’s my right to freedom of speech to say the election was rigged.” (in relation to the GA and DC election cases) That is true, but he isn’t being charged with saying the election was rigged. He is being charged with ACTIONS he took to overturn the result. The First Amendment does indeed defend speech, but when we start to get into conduct, there are different standards that apply, and you aren’t 100% free to do whatever you want.

“Fani Willis had a relationship with someone.” Courts don’t drop criminal charges because someone else is in a relationship. In fact, the Republican appointed judge actually resolved this issue perfectly; Willis could stay on the case but had to find a different prosecutor to handle it because of the perceived conflict of interest. The trial goes on.

“The banks didn’t care and got paid back.” I heard this one A LOT and I don’t understand how people fall for it. This is literally saying “he should be able to commit fraud.” Unfortunately for him, the law says you cannot commit fraud. The law doesn’t say you cannot commit fraud where someone doesn’t get paid back. The law doesn’t say you can’t commit fraud if the other party should have known better. The law says you cannot commit fraud, period. And as for the banks not caring, they do indeed care when they could have charged a higher interest rate for loans than what they did.

“An $83M judgment is absurd and is just another sign this is a witch hunt by the Biden administration.” First off, this was a civil case. It was not initiated by anyone in the govt. Second, $83M is absurd, but makes sense when you hear the details. Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation for $5M. This is totally reasonable given the circumstances. However, Trump IMMEDIATELY went out and defamed her again. To his audience of millions. Here is some legal advice to remember: If a court orders you not to do something, and you immediately do it, you are gonna have a bad time. A REALLY bad time. $83M in bad times is about par for the course if you try this. At first, he had to pay $5M, but after immediately defying the court order, he got marched back in to face a bill for $83M.

“Everyone exaggerates the values of their properties. If they start filing charges for this, everyone would be out of business.” Let’s step back and realize this argument is literally saying “you SHOULD be allowed to break the law.” It’s not saying he didn’t do it; actually, its admitting he DID do it. Now, I realize property values can be subjective, and it’s not unusual to pick a number that is in your favor, but then let’s realize that Trump repeatedly and egregiously overrepresented the FACTS of his properties when getting loans, and then egregiously underrepresented those values when paying taxes on them. This is the classic textbook definition of fraud. In addition, he stated the square footage was 3x what it actually was. If I say my house is worth 20% more than it really is, I’m fine so long as I have some appraisal I can point to saying it’s worth that. But if I say my house is 7,500 square feet more than it is, I’m going to have a bad time.

“They won’t let Trump defend himself. The judge wouldn’t even let his expert witnesses testify.” When just about every case begins, the judge provides a schedule. That schedule lays out the deadline for filings and motions. It also lays out the deadline for introducing expert witnesses. Trump tried to introduce an expert witness AFTER the deadline had passed.

“The cases are so rigged, they wouldn’t even give Trump a jury trial.” This is a civil case. You don’t have a right to a jury in civil cases of this type. Every lawyer knows this. What is particularly funny though is that in one of the cases, he WAS allowed to have a jury trial, and his lawyer didn’t check the box at the beginning of motions to do so. When they tried to backtrack and change later during trial, the judge pointed out that Trump had given up his right to a jury trial when he failed to check the box.

“Presidents can declassify documents.” Not after they leave office, but that’s not why there is a whole trial about his conduct. Trump’s legal problems are because he took classified documents, didn’t return them when asked, then didn’t return them when asked again. Then he was served a subpoena to return the documents, and he HID A BUNCH OF DOCUMENTS and had his attorney sign the subpoena saying all docs had been returned. The government gave him every opportunity to fix and address the situation, and Trump not only ignored them but flat out try to circumvent their authority. More legal advice: Do not do this if you like not living in prison.

“Biden didn’t get in trouble for his documents. There is a two-tiered justice system!” Again. Trump did not get in trouble for taking documents. He didn’t get in trouble for not returning them the first time, or the second time. He got in trouble because he falsely certified a subpoena and hid classified documents. Biden found documents and promptly returned them. Pence found documents and promptly returned them. Even Bill Barr went on TV and said Trump’s actions gave them no choice.

“Hillary claimed the election was stolen, why wasn’t she charged?” Trump didn’t just claim the election was stolen. He then went around the country and pushed people to change the results for him. THEN he rounded up fake electors in swing states and had them meet in basements and turn off their phones. He had them falsely certify they were valid electors who had chosen him. These fake electors were then delivered as if they were legitimate, and Trump contacted Mike Pence to tell him he needed to use these fake electors and declare Trump the winner of the election. That’s messed up. Not to mention after it became apparent Trump had actually won the Electoral College, Hillary conceded, something Trump never has done.

“They wouldn’t let Trump testify. They won’t even listen to his claims!” This was in reference to the NY civil fraud case. Trump wanted to testify on a DAMAGES hearing after the outcome had already been decided. The judge asked Trump if he was capable of only talking about relevant topics and not going on a political rant. Trump answered him by going on a political rant. The judge cut him off.

Note how just about all of these arguments are the same: They aren’t claiming he didn’t commit the crimes alleged. That’s because he really did ALL of these things of which he is alleged, some right out in the open or with evidence so strong it can’t really be refuted.

Here is the truth: Trump has repeatedly threatened judges, defied court orders, defamed victims, and refused to play by any rules in the courtroom. Because of this, he is rightfully getting his ass handed to him in every way possible.

But make no mistake. If you or I behaved in the same way, we would already be in jail. Every judge has given him every reasonable chance to behave, and he has shown that is beyond his capabilities.

There is only one strategy for him here: Destroy the credibility of our legal system. He is being charged with an attempt to overturn the election and stealing classified documents. These crimes are indefensible. As he has done since day one, his only strategy is to say it’s fake news and minimize them. Don’t let him.

PurpleAmerica’s Recommended Stories

This past weekend, 60 Minutes aired a story about ACTUAL wrongfully convicted people. People who had nothing to do with the crimes that were alleged against them and which they were convicted, mostly by false eyewitness testimony. I encourage everyone to watch it. Consistent among all the exhonorees is that 1) they are mostly minority, 2) they were poor and 3) they had horrible counsel.

Trump doesn’t fit any of those descriptions. Well, maybe the last one, but when you don’t pay your legal bills, this is what you are left with.

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

The best legal advice any lawyer can give Donald Trump

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

They couldn’t directly tie Al Capone to any of the murders, thefts and organized crime he actually directed and committed, but they were able to get him on evading the newly created Federal Income Tax. He was convicted and sent to jail.

Little known fact though, he served his time and then quietly was released, living out the rest of his days in Florida. He had a pretty nice mansion outside of Miami that was purchased in 2024 and demolished to make room for a bigger mansion for the purchaser. Where was it? About 75 miles south of Mar-a-Lago.