Raw Story reported weeks ago that Donald Trump's lawyers were making a huge mistake by electing not to have a jury trial. On Monday, however, Trump pretended it was something he was being denied. Trump had a two-week period in which he could have changed the bench trial to a jury trial, but never did it.
Speaking about the legal flub on MSNBC, former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said that it's hard to tell if the decision was intentional or a mistake.
Alina Habba's "failure to opt out for a jury trial" confused host Katie Phang, who said she looked up the New York state statute.
"There was a 15-day window after the attorney general, Letitia James, said no jury trial, within which the defense team for Donald Trump could have elected for a jury trial," said Phang. "And so, Neal, do you think Donald Trump is having this crashing reality moment where he's realizing that maybe the lawyers that he hired just really aren't competent enough to do this type of work for him?"
Katyal was legitimately stumped.
"It's possible that it's a competence issue. I always hesitate, you know, to say that, but certainly, the accountant he hired, as you were just saying a moment ago, Katie doesn't even understand Accounting 101," said the legal analyst. "When it comes to the waiver of a jury trial, which is a significant issue for Donald Trump, I have no idea whether this was an intentional, purposeful decision by Trump's legal team to waive his right to a jury trial or not, because with Trump and his team, it's hard to know where incompetence ends and where actual strategy begins."
See Katyal's comments in the video below or at the link here.
'Hard to tell where incompetence ends and actual strategy begins': legal analyst on Trump casewww.youtube.com
