After Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia case, Trump claims she was 'never' his attorney, despite their past ties | CNN Politics
After Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia case, Trump claims she was 'never' his attorney, despite their past ties | CNN Politics
Former President Donald Trump claimed Sidney Powell was “never” his attorney in a social media post Sunday, three days after she pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
Semantics.
What's the strategy in that? Claiming she was never his attorney forfeits what shreds of privilege might be left of their communications and is also one less person he can blame "advice of counsel" on.
113Nothing really counts anyway as I'm betting nearly all of their discussions involved crimes, which aren't protected by attorney client privilege.
It's funny though, trump acting like there isn't record of their relationship.
36Minor correction: Admitting you committed a crime in the past is protected. The attorney can still tiptoe around the fact that they know you committed it, by defending you on procedural or clerical grounds. For instance, they can attack the evidence that has been submitted against you, because it was mishandled, or because the equipment used to gather it hadn’t been calibrated recently enough, or for any number of reasons. Even if they know you committed the crime, they can still ensure that your court proceedings are fair.
Admitting that you plan on committing future crimes is not covered. The attorney can’t be party to future crimes, and admitting you plan on committing crimes makes them a co-conspirator if they don’t rat you out.
23
Was mostly gone when she signed the plea deal. Crime-Fraud Exemption kicks in.
34To be clear, attorney-client privilege does not exist when the client and the attorney collaborated on committing a crime.
16
He's an idiot.
16This here is the correct answer.
5While I agree that he’s an idiot, I tend to think his disavowal has more to do with his malignant narcissism: he can’t accept being associated with people who others view as weak, and in his view taking a guilty plea means you’re weak. In his mind, saying he knows her and hired her means admitting he made a bad judgment call, and that’s simply not something he’s capable of admitting (even to himself.)
4
Bets on him claiming that she was never his lawyer and yet attorney client privilege still applies for some reason?
14Because his legal defense wasn't based on claiming attorney-client; it was based on the idea that he was just asking legal hypotheticals to / legal advice from legal experts
Now two of these lawyers have taken plea deals to (presumably) testify against Trump. Also, by virtue of the guilty plea in this case where Trump is a codefendant, that privilege would likely be voided anyway
9
Step 1 - "She was never my attorney."
Step 2 - "All our conversations are confidential attorney/client privelege."
58Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!! MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted,
That was a challenging first sentence to read.
57It's funny to me to imagine that even after all of the opportunity he has had in his life, he's still a rambling fucking idiot who can't spell or figure out why there is a squiggly line under words on his phone.
53millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think
Someone needs to tell these people that facts don't care about feelings.
3
Moreover, Trump himself on Nov. 14th, 2020, identified Powell as being part of his legal team by tweeting, “I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!”‘
57He is truly his own worst enemy.
13He is truly his own worst enemy.
And everyone else's
9
There really is a Trump tweet for everything
10
When he finally ends up in prison where he belongs, he'll claim he was never Donald Trump.
51This is very very bad for Trump because Powell is also a defendant in Jack Smith's federal case being tried under Judge Chutkan.
Powell obviously knows that her guilty plea in Georgia can and will be used by Smith in the federal case, so what it basically says is that she's going to be a cooperating witness (she really has no choice) for Smith as well.
Powell was there at the infamous December 18th meeting wherein things like shutting down all voting and declaring martial law were allegedly discussed. This in turn means that she can provide convincing and potentially damning evidence as to Trump's knowledge of and intent with regard to how the election had actually played out, and specifically with regard to his desire to overturn it.
There's a lot more to be said about this, but I have to go make dinner.
42I hope your making popcorn for all of us!
3Trump's biggest defense against her testimony was attorney/client privilege.
And now he's saying that didn't exist.
3
man he's got such a distinct firehose of words constantly incriminating himself but also trying to cover up incriminating himself. 'I dont even know this girl, she's a criminal that's never worked for me, but her only crime is saying what I've been saying this entire time, the election was stolen and I support everything she does, amazing woman, I have nothing to do with her'
41It's his Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Everybody slings that term around like it's widely applicable. It's not. People that meet the DSM V "rules" are fairly rare. Trump knocks it out the park like no human I've ever heard of, let alone met IRL.
Here's his thinking on this one:
- Powell is a bad person because she betrayed me.
- I don't hire bad people, or make mistakes at all, ever, therefore she was never my attorney.
He's not lying, he truly believes the shit he says. Mom was like this. She would say shit that was demonstrably false, did not matter, she was right. Ever known another human for 50 years and never heard them admit fault, even a tiny, tiny bit? It's straight freaky.
14There's literally deposition in front of lawyers, in various court cases, with Trump being taped, on video, saying "well, if it feels true, then it must be true!"
One was the Trump University case where he was claiming that it was fine that people who had never even met him were saying they had been personally instructed by Donald Trump, because "if they felt that way, then it was true in a way" and therefore not fraud.
The other one was him suing a New York Times journalist who had found that Trump was really only worth somewhere between $150 and $250 million. Trump claimed that he was worth more than $2.7 billion and therefore sued for $5 billion.
In the deposition, Trump claimed his wealth fluctuated and depended on his feelings on any given day.
6I have the unfortunate experience of knowing people who hit every single characteristic on the list. Lack of empathy, defensiveness, aggressive gibberish, gaslighting, lying, fragile ego, impatience, desire for attention, social media addiction, lack of appreciation, willingness to take advantage of other people while offering them nothing, envy, difficulty interacting with people normally, problems with seeing how others perceive their behavior, hidden insecurity.
Anyway, he’s such a habitual liar that it doesn’t matter to him whether he really believes something or remembers it to be true. It’s the new story and he’ll stick to it for as long as needed.
2Are we brothers? Sorry man, I know exactly how you must feel.🤜
1
Lol. These asshats waste no time throwing each other under the bus. 🍿
35They have a bus driving around picking those up who were thrown inder the bus. Like a wheel, it doesn't end.
8they're so old they wouldn't get a random game reference.. actually so am I, so old. still wouldn't hesitate to head shot some trumpers
-1
Well, there will be more than enough signed statements and other written communication to prove the contrary, I'm sure.
27One book, "The Kraken Lady, 2020 Election Fraud And Me: This Sort of Thing Is My Bag, Baby", written by Donald Trump.
20
7
It's actually better if he sticks to that claim, that means he can't claim any communications with her were privileged and thus inadmissible.
5Fakenews amiright? /s
2
She has literal receipts though. Because she's one of the few people he actually paid.
24What a joke of a man he his.
23was never his attorney because he never paid her bills?
22Well kids. This is why we pay our co-conspirator's legal bills. And our own legal bills. And why we listen to advice of counsel. And why we remain loyal to those who are loyal to us.
Oh yeah, and skipping on the crimes helps as well.
22Ah, so what you're saying is that attorney-client privilege doesn't apply to your communications with her, since she was never your attorney, right?
17That stopped applying when she flipped. Privilege does not cover knowledge of criminal activity.
16Any discussion of planned or ongoing criminal activity was never covered in the first place. But, just because she flipped, doesn't mean that any communication outside that wouldn't be covered. If she was acting as his attorney, that discussion would still be privileged. However, if this statement by Trump pisses her off enough she could possibly use it and throw him under the bus with that information which, even though not directly criminal, could still be damaging to him.
9
He can't just go one day without throwing everything under a bus can he lol. Is the only person he hasn't his daughter (who he wants to bang) or has he done the same to her yet lol.
15He doesn’t want to ruin his chances with her.
7
Nice try fuck face. You're literally on TV talking to, about, and with her. Fuck, this guy is insufferable. I'd go to church everyday and pray to whatever God would end his existence* so we don't have to listen to this shit anyone.
*not condoning any violence against another human being by a human being; only divine intervention which seems to be a thing people believe in and how it can happen by magic sky daddies
14I’m waiting for him to claim that he’s lactose-intolerant now that Chesebro has also flipped.
13Well, at least he seems to know who she is this time.
10Not exactly “I don’t know her” but close enough for government work.
Also, “STOLLEN, Part Deux”
9This is the best summary I could come up with:
Former President Donald Trump claimed Sidney Powell was “never” his attorney in a social media post Sunday, three days after she pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
Trump publicly announced on November 15, 2020, that he “added” Powell to his “truly great team” of lawyers working on the election.
And she met with Trump on multiple occasions, including a December 2020 White House meeting where he considered naming her as a special counsel to look for voter fraud.
This was the infamous meeting where there was discussion of declaring martial law and ordering the military to seize voting machines.
In her guilty plea, Powell admitted her role in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia.
They did this after Trump declined to sign an executive order directing the Pentagon to seize voting machines.
The original article contains 440 words, the summary contains 140 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
8Ahh - throwing out the "attorney/client privilege" defense?
Bold strategy.
8Uh oh, I think donnie the Nepo Baby is getting nervous about someone flipping.
Trying to Mariah Carey his way out of his troubles...
7"I never heard of her! I only met her a couple of times."
7This seems easy to prove ether way. I would assume some paperwork exists with her listed as his legal representative.
6Yeah good luck with that bub lol
4“I don’t care about the truth! I have my own truth!“
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