Reflecting on an abrasive letter attorneys for Donald Trump sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding an audience to complain about the investigations headed up by special counsel Jack Smith, Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte suggested there is a reason the former president's legal team agreed to it despite the fact it likely will "backfire."
Earlier in the week, Trump attorneys John Rowley and James Trusty wrote to Garland and laid out their reasons in decidedly non-legalistic terms, which led many legal scholars to speculate that it was dictated by Trump and his attorneys agreed to sign it.
According to Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the strategy to send the letter, knowing Garland would refuse, and then publish it on Truth Social is rooted in firing up Trump's base.
As Eisen explained, "As I read this letter, it's a sign that Trump is about to be charged on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and that his lawyers are feeling desperate about it. I think they are also attempting to start ticking up a fuss to alert Trump's followers for political and fundraising purposes."
Salon's Marcotte agreed, while pointing out that the former president is being deluged with legal bills on multiple fronts and fundraising has slowed down.
"That Trump uses other people's money to pay his legal bills is well-established," she wrote, adding that the former president's "bills are only going to get worse, and Trump's fundraising has weakened considerably.
"Indeed, it seems the only reliable way for him to get donors to open their wallets these days is to send out fundraising appeals about how the 'deep state' is out to get him with 'phony' investigations."
"This goes a long way towards explaining why Trump's lawyers are going along with his preferred strategy of publicly bullying prosecutors, judges, and juries, usually by leveling false accusations," he wrote.
"From a legal perspective, that's just a bad idea, because it tends to make those people less inclined to show mercy. But it is a good way to raise money. Trump's lawyers very much want to get paid. Trump's big mouth may land him in jail, but as long as the donor wallets are open, his legal team will make a fortune in the process."
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