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WaPo: Trump Team Divided On Mar-a-Lago Documents Approach

Mar 26, 2024
How bad is it to represent Donald Trump well? There are new reports this afternoon that the former president's new lawyer has advised his client to lower the temperature with the justice department in the Mar-A-Lago criminal investigation, according to the Washington Post the rest of his legal

team

is

divided

over whether the former president should follow Chris Kais' advice, evidenced by his very public attacks. The former president has not decided to do it on his own from office this afternoon. Kais told others that he wanted to de-escalate. Trump's

team

's pugilistic

approach

to federal prosecutors, according to three people familiar with his comments, continuing to attack the Justice Department and the FBI, he said, would likely cause federal authorities to be more aggressive.
wapo trump team divided on mar a lago documents approach
Kais has suggested to other Trump advisers that the best solution would be to try to find a way out with the Justice Department before a possible indictment or trial; he said he believes Trump can avoid criminal charges. Join us now, one of the reporters on that incredible new report. Washington Post national investigative reporter Carol Lening, Neil Katiel. Also here is former acting attorney general now at Georgetown law professor both MSNBC contributors Carol, this report blew my mind. I saw this just as we were getting ready to go on the air and now you have the most accomplished, maybe that's the best adjective.
wapo trump team divided on mar a lago documents approach

More Interesting Facts About,

wapo trump team divided on mar a lago documents approach...

I can pull it off the shelf here on live television. The lawyer on this legal team really shines a yellow warning light on Trump's own conduct because he believes there is actual criminal exposure. Tell me what he has reported and what he has learned well. You know, what's really interesting about this is that you know my own instinct, and I know Niels' as well, has been that this situation at Mar-A-Lago is bad because it's simply a case of whether you kept the

documents

that you had. You're not supposed to have kept classified

documents

that you knew were classified and you lied about it or told someone to lie about it and that's really a simple open-and-shut case and it was always our instinct that this was a real point. weak and vulnerable for Donald Trump after the presidency in terms of criminal liability, but we now know that in reality the lawyer who asked for his fees up front and who arguably has a stronger reputation on the team to handle the Department of Justice. investigations accept the possibility of an accusation and believe that the best way to defend yourself is to be nice by saying I'm sorry, we made some mistakes, we said that all the classified information was turned over, but in reality we made some mistakes and it wasn't really intentional and we mayakopa Maricopa and we launched into the notion that this is not intentional, this is not criminal intensity, so unfortunately, as soon as that lawyer started giving that kind of information, my colleague found out that he had not come out.
wapo trump team divided on mar a lago documents approach
Donald Trump wants to be more combative he wants to attack the FBI he wants to attack the Department of Justice accuse them of planting material things that there is really no evidence of but that have worked Like a charm for Donald Trump in the past he wants to continue with his own brand, but Also what has worked successfully Carol, the surprising thing is that the view from within Trump's own criminal legal defense team is the same as the view from the outside of what you just did. He articulated that he is in trouble because of and two that he should not be so combative on these files and I want to ask you to report that the file that we have covered this week is the first that Kais has not signed. what he says for the second time since his ruin dismissal of practical experience the government goes to court to readjust the deadlines the general position of the government remains too optimistic and aggressive in terms of deadlines and the review of productions and the plaintiff would be better to base timelines rather than actual data and not gloomy government claims sounds incredibly antagonistic like it could have been written by the guy who wrote all the immigration speeches, who's who is pressuring him to sound like that guy, Well, there's a nice little group of lawyers and I can't point you to Nicole or anyone else because I would have posted if I could.
wapo trump team divided on mar a lago documents approach
I can't say that he is a single individual, but we know from past experience that the most combative lawyers in this case are the ones that I have advised the president, former president, that you know you don't have to deal with this. The FBI does not have ownership of this property. You can argue that you declassified everything or that there is a possibility of classification here. Boris Epstein was one of the people. Pushing that line of thinking, Evan Corcoran, you may remember, was the lawyer who remains here after being compromised by the fact that he led a review of Donald Trump's records in which he falsely said that his review was so diligent and so exhaustive that there were no more records of items at Mar-A-Lago, which turned out to be false and that put Evan Corcoran in a bad position, commitment essentially as the president's lawyer because he is a potential witness who I have talked a lot about this, but I understand he's more on the combative side, you know, channeling the president's wishes along with Boris and Chris Kais, as my colleague definitely found out that he's the one trying to classify former President Donald Trump. of teaching moments on how to deal with the Justice Department when you no longer run it.
I mean, I think Tim Comey thought he could give Donald Trump teaching moments about the Justice Department even when he ran it and we all know how. finished Neil Katiel um this is also from Carol's report, she writes privately, those familiar with the conversations say that Kais has questioned the wisdom and experience of some of his colleagues, arguing that they do not have extensive experience with this type of litigation and they could face legal problems. They themselves also argued privately that his council had deepened Trump's problems and that they would have had fewer problems if he had started representing Trump earlier in the summer.
Whether those attorneys were in fact acting on specific instructions from their client. The former president is still unclear. The client spoke to Hannity and said he could declassify things by thinking about themselves. I mean, he's the same as always, but as Carol points out, she's no longer running Bill Barr, who's no longer running the justice department. Yes, Nicole, I hadn't heard of her. this lawyer, uh, Chris Keys, before this whole series of events, but I will say he appears to live on planet Earth, which makes him unusual for a Trump lawyer, you know, I think when Carol says the underbelly is being exposed with Mar-A. -Lago I go one step further, this is an obviously incredibly serious criminal investigation, if you or I had done it, we would be in jail, there is no doubt about it, so you know, what you need in this circumstance is not the most extreme fire breathing lawyer.
You need someone who can really start to cooperate with Just Carbon and you know that telling the truth, honesty in dealing with the Department is very important when you are in the criminal crosshairs, the first thing you want to do is start showing the prosecutor's gaze. I realize you made a mistake we are here to cooperate we are here to help and what you are doing is the exact opposite and why after dealing with hundreds of really complex cases is that type of aggressive position is the worst place to be Like, just take, for example, this whole request about a special request that Trump filed, you know, I feel good about him because he got these decisions from Judge Cannon, but those decisions have backfired spectacularly for him in the appeals court. with two Trump appointees. not only does it rebuke the trial judge's decision, they went out of their way to say this, that the justice department is acting in good faith, that these allegations are incorrect, that this whole statement about whether Trump is a classified document, declassified documents is totally out of line, so by presenting that they undermined his position, they didn't strengthen it, so this is an example of talking tough and being really smart in litigation are two different things and Trump is unfortunate, unfortunately for him, It's not the latest, that's why, in my opinion. this case is going towards a certain prosecution who, as you know, so far has done absolutely nothing to help and a lot of things to hurt their case, it's incredible and Carol, I'll give you the last word, I mean, it sounds like the report. that the most um I won't say shocking because the crimes were committed in plain sight of everyone.
Trump does not deny having committed them, he simply denies what the definition of crimes is. I mean, it seems like from your reporting, Kais is almost certain that Trump will do it. being accused in the Stand trial is a fair read. I think the fairest reading is that he believes there is a risk of that and he is trying to scare the former president directly. um look, there's a way this can go wrong, there's a way this can go right. listen to me and I promise you that we can avoid criminal danger, um, but accusation is a word that apparently he has considered as a possibility and I don't think it's a scare tactic Nicole, I think if you can't keep pushing all these buttons with the DO and don't expect that they're going to press charges and Neil and I think we agree, you know, just from your wealth of experience, you know, being a lawyer who covers lawyers, we agree that the key here at the Department of Justice is to accuse Donald.
Trump, an unprecedented former president, unprecedented, the former president's charge for a crime, but the key pillars are that the material he preserved was extraordinarily sensitive. Let's verify that we have determined that that is the truth. The second pillar is how much he was involved in the deception. to keep these records to retain them and to claim before the Department of Justice ah we don't have more here behold they have more there so the second part is yet to be determined that's why I don't feel like this is safe it will be accused. I feel like that second piece is important and it's hard to imagine that it didn't have some kind of role in the hoax that the government is now investigating.

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