Biden’s Strategy: Legally Smart But Politically Clumsy
For better or worse, the historically unprecedented invitation to the FBI to perform a search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, reveals that Biden and the White House’s responses are being driven by his legal team, not communications or political strategists. That’s the way it should be.
The constant trickle of disclosures about the discovery of classified documents first at this private office and then at his personal residence has subjected Biden’s private lawyers and the White House to scorn from communications and political strategists, while other Democrats are also jumping on the criticism bandwagon. But criminal defense work should be driven by neither communications strategies nor political ones, because neither communications nor politics will keep you out of jail.
A mentor of mine in private practice who had been a federal prosecutor told me he preferred civil litigation over white-collar defense work because in the latter you were always begging the government “please don’t hurt me.” While begging doesn’t always work—the principle is correct.