Trump being in court 'pressured' lawyer to make 'preposterous' claims: ex-Trump attorney
Former President Donald Trump's attorney John Sauer triggered outrage from the legal community on Tuesday after arguing to a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that former President Donald Trump would be immune from prosecution even if he ordered a drone strike on one of his political opponents.
Even former Trump White House lawyer Jim Schultz found that argument ridiculous, in discussion on MSNBC Tuesday evening.
"Donald Trump made a decision to sit in that courtroom," said anchor Ari Melber, himself an attorney. "You were a White House lawyer ... do you think in your experience, that might have also pressured a compromise, the lawyer, in other words, would this Trump lawyer make such a terrible argument as we have now deconstructed if he didn't have the client in the room?"
"It was also extreme possibly beyond what he needed to say today," he continued. "I'm curious if you can shed any light on that, Jim."
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"So I can't get into that lawyer's head, but certainly he's looking at the former President of the United States sitting next to him who, you know, historically likes to hear what he likes to hear in the arguments that are being made," said Schultz. "That's been publicly displayed on numerous occasions. So certainly there's going to be some pressure upon him, whether he caved to that pressure or actually, you know, made these arguments on his own, that's unknown to all of us."
"But what we do know is that, you know, they weren't very good arguments," he added. "In fact, they were preposterous arguments and not likely to succeed in court, and I think afterwards, the press conference afterwards did them no service either."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Jim Schultz on John Sauer's day in court www.youtube.com