WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Donald Trump speaks about his legal woes in a way that would make most defense attorneys wince.
A recent sampling: In a March interview on Fox News Channel, the Republican former president said he had 鈥渢he right to take鈥 with him to his Florida resort and wouldn鈥檛 say he hadn鈥檛 looked at the records since leaving office. During this month, he said he told a Georgia elections official 鈥測ou owe me鈥 votes in the 2020 election.
At the same town hall on May 10 he insulted a female writer as a 鈥渨ack job鈥 鈥 only a day after that same woman, E. Jean Carroll, him in a civil suit alleging defamation and sexual assault. On Monday, Carroll to hold him liable for the town hall remarks.
Trump, the leading contender for , has never hesitated to offer his opinion or joust with his antagonists. The problem, legal experts say, is that the former president is under intensifying scrutiny from state and federal prosecutors, and those same prosecutors can use the former president's statements against him in a variety of ways.
鈥淎ny utterances by a defendant, whether they are confessions, denials, observations, nonsensical gibberish, or just plain goofy are nothing but pure gold for prosecutors," said Julieanne Himelstein, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington.
Trump has found himself under investigation by prosecutors stretching from New York to Georgia.
He was by a Manhattan grand jury on charges related to hush-money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign. On Tuesday, a New York judge , in the midst of the primary contests. Trump, appearing via video conference, threw his hands up in frustration at the timing of the trial and glowered at the camera.
A local prosecutor in Georgia is investigating whether the former president and his allies broke the law in seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis that indictments could come in August. Meanwhile, a Justice Department special counsel is probing the former president鈥檚 role in the Jan. 6., 2021, insurrection and the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Largo, Trump鈥檚 Florida home and resort.
In recent media appearances and during rallies, Trump has made comments that could be seen as incriminating or, at the very least, complicate his legal team鈥檚 ability to beat back charges. He seemed to get into particular trouble during a May 10 town hall hosted by CNN.
The former president spent nearly an hour discussing a range of issues while also commenting on the investigations in ways that run counter to generally accepted legal advice. Not only did he re-insult Carroll and provide Fulton County鈥檚 prosecutor more fodder for her probe but he also gave the Justice Department an opening by claiming he couldn鈥檛 recall whether he had shown classified documents to anyone.
Joyce Vance, a law professor who served as a U.S. attorney in Alabama under President Barack Obama, opined on Twitter: 鈥淭here were prosecutors and agents taking notes tonight.鈥
Trump also suggested that he was personally involved in taking records to Mar-a-Lago 鈥 鈥淚 was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified,鈥 he said. That statement is at odds with arguments made by his own lawyers, who as recently as last month suggested in a letter to Congress that the document removal was the 鈥渞esult of haphazard records-keeping and packing鈥 rather than an intentional decision by Trump.
The statements are being made as the documents investigation shows signs of winding down and as Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith zeroes in on the question of potential obstruction, drilling into the failure by Trump and his representatives to return the classified records in his possession despite being issued a subpoena to do so.
Trump鈥檚 penchant for public statements was on display in the last special counsel investigation he faced. He famously told an interviewer in 2017 that he was thinking of 鈥渢his Russia thing鈥 when he fired former FBI director James Comey. His lawyers sought to explain away that statement by noting that he had also said that he knew that firing Comey would prolong, rather than shorten, the Russia probe.
Legal scholars said that prosecutors might not be able to use some of Trump鈥檚 comments if they are not relevant to the charges or might be deemed prejudicial by a judge.
They also may not need to play them to jurors because other evidence is much stronger. While Trump said on CNN that he told Brad Raffensperger 鈥測ou owe me鈥 votes, he was also asking the Georgia elections official to . The call came in January 2021 as Trump was desperately trying to overturn Georgia鈥檚 election result.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not inculpatory any more than the fact that we already have a recorded phone call,鈥 said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. 鈥淚t might be more damning had we not had the actual recording of the phone call.鈥
Former prosecutors and defense attorneys say a client鈥檚 public comments can hamstring how they present their cases to a jury. It can reveal their strategy and lock them into certain lines of attacking the prosecution鈥檚 case. Such comments might also encourage them to do everything they can to keep their client from taking the witness stand.
For example, they said, Trump may have admitted to taking classified documents from the White House but his lawyers wrote, 鈥淭he purpose of this letter is not to opine about whether these documents are actually classified or have been declassified.鈥
If Trump were to ever testify, prosecutors could use such contradictory statements to poke holes in his story, making it harder for his defense team to tell the jury a coherent narrative.
鈥淚t could well be that what Trump is doing is making it impossible for him to testify because he鈥檇 be so damaged were he to testify,鈥 said Richard Klein, a criminal law professor at Touro University in New York.
