The Explosive Drama Between Donald Trump And One Of His Main Lawyers, Explained
When it comes to Donald Trump, it's always just a matter of time before his closest confidants are caught in his crosshairs. Still, given the extent of Trump's legal problems, he would do best to keep on the good side of his attorneys. However, he's gone against the grain in true Trump fashion by causing explosive drama with one of his principal lawyers.
Trump's also not making friends and influencing judges with his aggressive and bizarre courtroom behavior. It's reached the stage where keeping up with Trump's legal battles is challenging. Per The Daily Beast, he's currently embroiled in a $250 million civil trial for allegedly committing "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation." Trump has spent the majority of his time behaving like a petulant child, attacking the judge and his staff, throwing insults, and allegedly lying under oath. Trump was issued a gag order over a derogatory photo and comment he posted on Truth Social. He was then fined $5,000 for violating the gag order. A further $10,000 fine followed for yet another violation, leading to him throwing a tantrum and exiting the courtroom.
Time reports that Trump branded the proceedings a "political witch hunt" and accused the judge of prejudice. He also shot down accusations of massively inflating his wealth to banks and investors. "I'm worth billions of dollars more than the financial statements," Trump boasted. His performance doesn't bode well for his many future trials, so he should really avoid alienating his principal defense lawyer. But, nope.
Bigly tantrums
Despite his litany of civil lawsuits and criminal indictments, Donald Trump is showing no sign of losing voter support or dropping in the polls. In fact, according to a survey conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, Trump is leading President Joe Biden in five of six battleground states for the 2024 election. So, on the surface, there'd appear to be no reason for Trump to sweat it over the dates in his packed diary of upcoming court appearances. Still, according to reports, he is spitting mad over the timing of his criminal trial for allegedly misappropriating campaign funds to hush up Trump's purported affair with Stormy Daniels.
The Guardian published excerpts from ABC Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl's new book, "Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party," which claim that Trump is losing his cool, bigly. According to Karl, the former president suffered an epic half-hour meltdown after learning the Daniels hush-money trial is scheduled to begin on March 25, 2024. And it was Trump's leading attorney, Todd Blanche, who was the primary target of his ire.
An inside source told Karl that Trump launched a scathing attack on Blanche, who's regarded as the kingpin of Trump's ever-increasingly beleaguered legal team. "That's in the middle of the primaries! If I lose the presidency, you are going to be the reason!" Trump allegedly screamed. He called Blanche the "F word" before shifting his anger onto the other long-suffering legal team members.
Screaming attacks
In a Meidas video posted on YouTube, Michael Popok from Legal Analysis Friends further broke down the claims made by Jonathan Karl in his new book, "Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party." Karl alleges that Donald Trump's attack against Todd Blanche, who's the principal criminal lawyer on his legal team, started during a courtroom video hearing and continued after the cameras stopped rolling.
Popok notes how miserable Blanche looked while seated by Trump as the judge announced that the court date for the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial would be March 25, 2024. Popok explains that Blanche is "the most established criminal defense lawyer" that Trump has on his defense team, so it's little surprise that he was stoney-faced while receiving a dressing down by Trump. In his book, Karl writes that Trump switched his mic off, turned to Blanche, and ripped him to shreds over the trial clashing with the primaries. Trump's screaming attack allegedly got worse after leaving the courtroom.
Popok says that if Trump wants to retain his defense team, then he needs to learn to control his temper tantrums, which, let's face it, is highly unlikely at this point. "First of all, there's no line of lawyers wrapped around the block who want to represent Donald Trump," he explained. Popok said no reputable law firms would be interested in defending Trump's legal battles, especially his current civil law case, claiming they wouldn't "touch this with a 10-ft pole."