Todd Blanche Doesn't Seem To Understand How 'Being A Lawyer' Works
Or at least he doesn't want to admit to it on TV.
Todd Blanche and Donald Trump (Photo by Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)
In fairness, Todd Blanche absolutely knows how lawyering works. Before he gave up his cushy Biglaw job to stand behind Donald Trump and glower, Blanche served as a federal prosecutor and a staple of the white-collar defense team at Cadwalader. He’s sat on both sides of the table and fully grasps the unique obligations and challenges of the prosecution and the defense.
But when he goes on TV, he strategically forgets all that.
How To Build And Manage Your Law Firm Rate Sheet
Andrew Weissmann, former general counsel to the FBI and chief of the DOJ criminal fraud section, captions this simply with “Omg” and that’s about all it needs.
While the prosecution does — in America — have the burden of proof, it’s generally considered the job of the defense attorneys to recognize when that’s in danger of being met and then to have a robust defense prepared. Instead, Trump’s lawyers watched the DA rack up so many Ws that prosecutors started voluntarily dropping witnesses like Karen McDougal. After they flopped their mistrial request over testimony they forgot to object to, it was pretty clear that the defense was going to need to do something. They called Robert Costello to undermine Michael Cohen and only managed to make Cohen look more upstanding before saying, “sure, that oughta do it.”
Sponsored
How To Build And Manage Your Law Firm Rate Sheet
Back To Basics: 6 Tech Tips Every Small Firm Needs To Hear
Trust The Process: How To Build And Manage Workflows In Law Firms
Trust The Process: How To Build And Manage Workflows In Law Firms
The sanctimonious claim that this was a “loaded question that should not be asked of a defense attorney” is a disingenuous effort to pull one over on the public. The jury can’t ask why the defendant doesn’t testify, and this jury was correctly instructed on this point, but everyone else sure can. CNN isn’t forcing the client to waive his Fifth Amendment rights — they’re not even asking about the defendant testifying himself at all — CNN is asking why the defense team had seemingly made no plan to mount a defense case. His follow-up is that they’d hoped that the prosecution would call the key witnesses she mentions — former Trump money man Allen Weisselberg and bodyguard Keith Schiller — to fill out the prosecution’s case. So the defense hoped to bank on “look jury, we’re not calling these witnesses but you’ve got to believe they would’ve been good defense witnesses because otherwise the prosecution would have called them”? Bold.
And an incredibly dumb thing to say out loud.
And this is only a question because Trump made reference to witnesses the defense didn’t call, most likely a reference to the expert witness they’d intended to call to testify about election law. Since expert testimony on the law isn’t really a thing judges generally invite juries to hear, the testimony was subject to a number of restrictions and the defense didn’t call the witness. But rather than defend that decision, Blanche tried to shame the media for daring to ask Trump’s lawyer what Trump meant. In the process, Blanche cosplayed as an incompetent attorney for the cameras.
But this is the prize Blanche bought himself when he left Cadwalader. At least with the appeal process ramping up, he knows Trump can’t stop paying his bills yet.
Sponsored
Raising The Bar in Bar Prep
How Savvy Lawyers Build Their Law Firm Rate Sheet
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
