And then all of a sudden
Trump helps the prosecution again:
Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump in June for hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. During a Fox News town hall on Tuesday night, host Laura Ingraham asked Trump why he hadn’t simply returned the material when the government asked him to do so.
“First of all, I didn’t have to hand them over,” Trump said bluntly. “But second of all, I would have done that. We were talking, and then all of a sudden they raided Mar-a-Lago.”
Of course, he did “have to.” He’s just brazenly lying in his usual way when he says he didn’t. He may in some sense “believe” he had the right to take them, but he has no right to believe that, because he’s been told otherwise a billion times. His “belief” is just the stubborn toddleresque “I can if I want to” bratty enitlement that is his entire worldview.
The former president faces 41 criminal counts for willful retention of national defense information, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other things. He has repeatedly insisted that he had every right to keep the documents. He does not.
And, epistemically, he doesn’t even have the right to believe he has the right. (There is no supreme court of epistemic justice though, so he’ll continue to get away with that one until he shuts up for good.
I think it’s about time we have a Supreme Court of Epistemic Justice, and I nominate Ophelia to be the Chief Justice.
“Truth” is…shall we say…fungible…or maybe…fluid for Donal Trump. From
Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
This bit is also telling
Trump’s M.O. his whole life is to cheat first and then negotiate. That is, first he shafts someone: doesn’t pay a vendor; doesn’t repay a bank; doesn’t deliver to a customer. When they squawk, he “negotiates”, which means he uses the civil court system to delay and bury them in legal and accounting costs until they give up, or settle for 20 cents on the dollar, or whatever.
Now Trump is up against the criminal justice system, which doesn’t have to negotiate with him. A judge signs a warrant and police officers show up (with guns!) to take what the warrant authorizes. Trump is bewildered and outraged by this.
Good point.
Just as any other toddler would be.
Never heard it before, but I do like this word: “toddleresque.” Very apt.
This is related to the question of why so many of Trump’s lawyers are terrible.
Trump is one of those people who will talk to as many lawyers as he needs to until one tells him what he wants to hear, and that’s who he hires.