A serious misunderstanding of the law
or how Donald Trump may have put himself in legal peril
Donald Trump’s detractors point out the fairly obvious in their criticisms of him.
Narcissist. Blowhard. Liar. Bully.
That last one is actually the most dunning and critical part of Trump’s personality. It’s what makes his opponents cringe and his minions cheer.
Donald Trump was a bully in military school.1 Apparantly, his bullying dated back to kindergarten.2
Virtually no one from New York Military Academy, Fordham, or Penn has spoken of their friendship with Trump from knowing him in school before his career as a real estate developer. Bullies don’t really have friends…just victims and enablers.
One of Trump’s enablers was a lawyer named Roy Cohn with whom Trump forged a relationship in the 1970s. Roy Cohn, who defined legal bullying when he was counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy (R-WI)3 in the 1950s, taught Donald Trump every legal trick in the book — well before Codes of Professional Responsibility (ethics rules) and more aggressive policing of attorneys by state bars.
Those legal lessons and Trump’s affinity for using financial leverage to get his way created the Donald Trump people either loathe or adore.
By the time Donald Trump purchased his first casino, his managerial style subsumed his personality — he became a Corleone, a Soprano. Punish anyone who crosses you in business and protect yourself to the hilt with lawyers.
The above explains Trump’s purges within the GOP of anyone not 100% loyal to him and his weaponization, while serving as President, of the FBI and the Justice Department as his personal police force and private prosecutor for taking on the political Left and the media.
The two most important legal tools Roy Cohn likely explained to Trump was the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and attorney-client privilege to protect himself personally. As President, Trump quickly discovered he could not impose NDAs on federal employees. But he also discovered a weapon that made attorney-client privilege look like a cardboard sword — executive privilege.
Executive privilege, which is a judicial invention expanding the advisory protection of attorney-client privilege, allows the President (and governors) to maintain confidential communications under certain circumstances within the executive branch. Its advantage is that it acts a limited shield against subpoenas and legislative oversight. Arguably anyway.
For Donald Trump, NDAs spelled a lifetime of legal protection from witnesses against him, attorney-client privilege was a get out of jail free card, and executive privilege made him an untouchable political bully.
Unfortunately, there is an exception to all three. The crime fraud exception.
And it’s readily apparant that Donald Trump glossed over or simply ignored that bit of legal realism. Unfortunately for Donald Trump and his consigliere for staying in power, John Eastman; U.S. District Judge David Carter is all too aware of the “crime fraud exception” to attorney-client privilege.
On October 19th, Judge Carter ordered numerous emails from John Eastman to be released to the January 6th Commitee noting among other things:
“Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower—it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation’s government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process.”4
Donald Trump’s ego led him to attempt to overthrow the government. That same ego led him to steal classified documents.
Donald Trump was imbued by Roy Cohn and his own hubris to believe he was legally untouchable — to the point of leaving evidence in the open or squarely within the crime-fraud exception.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/trump-the-bully-how-childhood-military-school-shaped-the-future-president/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/young-donald-trump-military-school/2016/06/22/f0b3b164-317c-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn#Work_with_Joseph_McCarthy
REda the entire decision, it is a class in the crime fraud exception. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.260.0_4.pdf