The good news for former president Donald Trump is that he has recently retained competent defense lawyers: experienced former federal prosecutors, Jim Trusty and Evan Corcoran, who know how the Justice Department works, and therefore where the DOJ is going with its criminal investigations (yes, that’s investigations, plural) — and where it may have stepped out of bounds in the Mar-a-Lago search.
The bad news is twofold. First, the starters have been brought into the game belatedly. Consequently, although the relief the former president is seeking in the motion he filed in Florida federal court on Monday is eminently reasonable, he may have waited too long for some of it to do him much good. Second, Trump being Trump, the motion is part political-propaganda document, indulging throughout the fantasy that he is still the chief executive. The very first words of the motion are: “President Donald J. Trump . . . respectfully files this Motion . . .” and by seven pages in, counsel are quoting, as if it were somehow authoritative, an August 15 Truth Social post, in which Trump proclaimed that he is “the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!).” This may set them swooning at Club 45 USA, but it probably won’t amuse Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the Trump appointee to whom the motion has been assigned.
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