Trump keeps his legal team close despite trial drama
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s trial is providing plenty of fuel for the former president to torch his own legal team, but that may not matter: The audience of one seems happy — at least for now.
It’s a surprising turn considering how many lawyers Trump has jettisoned in the past or have gone their separate ways.
Despite Justice Juan Merchan admonishing Trump’s lawyers for not objecting during salacious testimony, Trump himself appears to be satisfied .
"I want to thank my lawyers,” the former president said this week from the courthouse. “They've done a very good job, but I'd rather thank them after it's over, as opposed to now because we don't want them to get carried away because there's no case."
The prosecution quizzed porn star Stormy Daniels over her alleged sexual encounter with Trump this week, leading the former president’s defense team to complain that the details she shared were prejudicial. They requested a mistrial twice and were denied each time, with Merchan taking the opportunity to criticize Trump’s team — particularly Susan Necheles — for not trying harder to shut down Daniels’ testimony.
“I agree, that shouldn’t have come out. I wish those questions hadn’t been asked, and I wish those answers hadn’t been given,” Merchan said, referring to graphic details like whether or not Trump used a condom.
“But for the life of me, I don’t know why Ms. Necheles didn’t object. Why on earth she wouldn’t object to a mention of a condom, I don’t understand.”
Trump’s legal team is led by Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, two experienced litigators, and Necheles, a criminal defense attorney who has argued in front of Merchan before.
Trump has a long history of clashing with his legal team and dismissing or benching attorneys. Some have vowed to never work with the former president again or have turned into public critics. Others left on their own because they disagreed with the legal strategy being pursued by Trump and his advisers.
Joe Tacopina abruptly quit Trump’s legal team in the hush money case in January. Jim Trusty and John Rowley announced they were leaving the team representing Trump in the documents case last June. Tim Parlatore left that same team citing conflicts with another person on Trump’s legal team.
Last summer, Trump replaced attorney Drew Findling on his Atlanta legal team before the former president was set to surrender to authorities in Georgia, where Trump and more than a dozen others are accused of a racketeering conspiracy related to the 2020 election.
More than five years ago, when Trump was battling then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former president’s lead attorney in the Russia probe, John Dowd, resigned amid a wider shake up of Trump’s legal team at the time.
And while Merchan’s harsh criticism of the defense team’s performance could lead to Trump tossing them into his tall pile of discarded or disenchanted attorneys, there are plenty of reasons to believe that this time, he is unlikely to make any major moves.
For one, Trump has made clear he does not like or trust Merchan, who he has railed against as “conflicted” and “corrupt.” And the former president’s allies have appeared to be pleased with the courtroom grilling of Daniels. On Truth Social, Trump on Friday posted 14 different far-right or conservative legal commentators slamming the case and criticizing the prosecution.
“This case is becoming legally obscene … Defense doing well, have been all along,” conservative lawyer Jonathan Turley said on the former president’s social media platform.
Former White House attorney Ty Cobb said he did not think Merchan’s criticism of the defense team was a big deal.
“They should have definitely objected more. But I don't think Trump is going to be too frustrated by that. I mean, he knows what's going on there frankly, and one or two sustained objections wouldn't have changed the trajectory of this case,” he said.
Cobb, as someone who knows both the legal world and the former president quite well, thinks Trump is in good hands overall.
“I don't think Trump is going to go nuts about this particular team just because this is about as good as it gets for him in terms of talent,” he said. “And frankly, he's lucky he got people with this level of experience.”
Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesperson, issued a statement criticizing Merchan and calling the former president’s lawyers “the most experienced, qualified, disciplined and overall strongest legal team ever assembled.”