There’s been plenty of armchair quarterbacking in the week since Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony. And one big question looms over this case and the others facing the former president: Did his lawyers fail, or did Trump?
“A good lawyer, when his client insists on doing something really stupid, throws his body in front of the freight train and prevents it,” said Ty Cobb, a White House attorney during the Trump administration. “That’s harder to do with Trump than many.”
Legal observers, including some with ties to the former president, are mixed on whether lead attorney Todd Blanche and his team made critical mistakes that led to the 34 guilty counts last week. Trump himself says it was rigged from the start, and some observers say it was unwinnable. Others say the legal team let Trump down through how it handled witnesses and arguments.