Trump giving hints he's 'lost faith in his attorneys': legal expert
January 11, 2024
Appearing on CNN, former prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo suggested Donald Trump's attempt to present the closing argument in his $370 million financial fraud trial playing out in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday was unprecedented and a sign that he thinks he can do a better job than his three attorneys handling the case.
Speaking with CNN host John Berman, Friedman Agnifilo pointed out that Judge Artur Engoron was right to put limitations on Trump if he was allowed to speak — which Trump and attorney Christopher Kise refused to agree to -- but Trump's demand spoke volumes about Trump's opinion of Kise and fellow Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Clifford Robert.
Stating that should Trump be allowed to speak on the grounds that "there was a lot less risk that a jury pool could be tainted by inappropriate information that could come out in a summation," the former prosecutor claimed she felt Trump is unhappy with his legal representation.
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"I think there is a possibility that if Trump did agree to the ground rules as [CNN legal analyst] Elie Hoenig said, those would apply to anybody, including lawyers or anybody who would give a closing argument or a summation because there are rules, civil procedure rules which say you can't bring in new evidence, you can't testify, you can't criticize his law secretary because he has a gag order," she argued. "That would apply to his lawyers as well."
"And I wonder whether Trump has lost faith in his lawyers, and that is why he wants to give a speech," she elaborated, "because, actually, most of the time, lawyers represent a party, and you do that so that they can marshal the evidence and make the strongest arguments for you. So somebody who is represented doesn't typically want to give the closing argument. In fact, I have never seen that when someone is represented. I wonder if it means he has lost faith in his lawyers and that's why he wants to do it himself."
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