Trump's use of lawyers as 'attack dogs' is coming back to bite him

Donald Trump attorney Evan Corcoran's notes and grand jury testimony will be central to the Department of Justice's 37-count federal indictment of the former president and, combined with former Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen's contributions to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's 34-count indictment for tax fraud, it appears his misuse of his legal representation is coming back to haunt him.

According to a report from the New York Times, the DOJ's case against the former president who will be arraigned in Florida on Tuesday will hinge heavily on Corcoran's notes where he memorialized instructions from the former president who encouraged him to break the law.

As the Times reports, Trump has a history of using his lawyers as both enforcers and attack dogs and, as he faces both a critical federal and civil cases -- with more likely to come -- his legal strategies are coming back to bite him.

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"Mr. Trump’s legal fate could now hinge on testimony and evidence from two men he paid to defend him: Mr. Corcoran, who is still a member of his legal team, and Michael D. Cohen, a former lawyer for Mr. Trump who has helped prosecutors in New York with their case related to the former president’s payment of hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election. Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges, including one related to a campaign finance violation, in 2018. Mr. Corcoran has not been accused of any wrongdoing," the Times is reporting before adding, "Their complicated involvement in the two cases reflects the perils of the former president’s long habit of viewing lawyers as attack dogs or even political bosses rather than as advocates bound by ethical rules."

Getting back to Corcoran's notes, the report continues, "Mr. Trump has long complained about lawyers or other advisers taking notes in front of him. But The New York Times had reported that Mr. Corcoran’s notes were copious, dictated into the Voice Memos app on his iPhone after a meeting with Mr. Trump about the subpoena issued in May 2022 demanding the return of any classified documents he still had at Mar-a-Lago."

"Beyond serving as potential evidence for a jury, Mr. Corcoran’s notes could prove useful to prosecutors in what is sure to be a contentious pretrial period marked by motions from Mr. Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case for various reasons," the Times report added.

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