Donald Trump has the nickname “Teflon Don” for a reason: Somehow, attempts to pin him down for a crime never seem to stick. One of the reasons is that Trump is very savvy about keeping himself at arm’s length from the evidence tying him to the criminal activity, often using his lawyers as a shield. That’s why the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., ordering Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran to both testify Friday and turn over documents about communications with Trump is a major breakthrough for the Justice Department. Special counsel Jack Smith’s ability to pierce the attorney-client privilege may finally provide direct evidence tying Trump to obstruction of justice.
A few go-to tactics often emerge in cases involving Trump. One is his use of lawyers to do his dirty work.
A few go-to tactics often emerge in cases involving Trump. One is his use of lawyers to do his dirty work. In the probe underway in Manhattan, for example, prosecutors are looking at the hush money payments made by Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election. To charge Trump with a crime, District Attorney Alvin Bragg will have to show that Trump’s later reimbursement of Cohen, disguised as payments for legal services, violated state laws.
Another signature move for Trump is to use various kinds of privilege he may be able to assert to create a “cone of silence” that prosecutors can’t penetrate. We’ve seen him do this often with executive privilege, asserting that neither Congress nor the courts can probe conversations he had with his close advisers in the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. (While Trump was largely able to stonewall Congress using executive privilege, he has had limited success with this tactic in court — a federal judge recently rejected this claim and ordered several aides, including Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark…
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