Former President Donald Trump could have avoided being indicted if he’d listened to his lawyers instead of Tom Fitton, the liberal media are now arguing.
Last fall, Trump attorney Christopher Kise “wanted to quietly approach [the Department of Justice] to see if he could negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges, hoping Attorney General Merrick Garland and the department would want an exit ramp to avoid prosecuting a former president,” according to The Washington Post.
But instead of listening to Kise, the former president sought the counsel of others, including Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, a watchdog group, and they told him not to seek a settlement and to instead “fight.”
It wasn’t a one time thing either.
“Trump time and again rejected the advice from lawyers and advisers who urged him to cooperate and instead took the advice of Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, and a range of others who told him he could legally keep the documents and should fight the Justice Department,” according to the Post.
“Trump would often cite Fitton to others, and Fitton told some of Trump’s lawyers that Trump could keep the documents, even as they disagreed,” the Post reported Wednesday, much to leftists’ amusement:
@BradMossEsq, you made my night; watching you @TheLastWord w/ @Lawrence
Tom Fitton at Judicial Watch, “has nicely and slowly, walked this man into an indictment, and there’s nothing he can do to save him now.”
Trump has always taken bad advice from individuals who have no clue. pic.twitter.com/HEbjPajGo1
— Novelette Dryden (@DrydenNovelette) June 15, 2023
When questioned by the Post, Fitton “acknowledged he gave the advice to Trump but declined to discuss the details of their conversations.”
“He added that he read the indictment and did not believe it laid out illegal or obstructive conduct. Multiple witnesses said they were asked about Fitton in front of a grand jury and the role he played in Trump’s decisions,” the Post notes.
Speaking for himself, Fitton offered his take on why Trump should continue fighting instead of just acknowledging that he screwed up.
“I think what is lacking is the lawyers saying, ‘I took this to be obstruction.’ Where is the conspiracy? I don’t understand any of it. I think this is a trap. They had no business asking for the records … and they’ve manufactured an obstruction charge out of that. There are core constitutional issues that the indictment avoids, and the obstruction charge seems weak to me,” he said.
Trump’s advisors, for their part, reportedly want Fitton to shut up.
“Several … Trump advisers blamed Fitton for convincing Trump that he could keep the documents and repeatedly mentioning the ‘Clinton socks case’ — a reference to tapes Bill Clinton stored in his sock drawer of his secret interviews with historian Taylor Branch that served as the basis of Branch’s 2009 book documenting the Clinton presidency,” according to the Post.
“Judicial Watch lost a lawsuit in 2012 that demanded the audio recordings be designated as presidential records and that the National Archives take custody of the recordings. A court opinion issued at the time stated that there was no legal mechanism for the Archives to force Clinton to turn over the recordings,” the Post notes.
CNN’s Jim Acosta responded to the Post’s report later Wednesday evening with a notable lack of shock:
“First thing, shocker – he’s not listening to his lawyers. When have we heard that story before? I mean, this is a familiar pattern with Donald Trump. He gets into legal trouble. That legal trouble creates a spectacle. And he uses the spectacle to raise money and fire up his base, and that’s what he is doing. And that cycle will continue,” he said.
Acosta went on to describe a conversation he’d had with a “longtime Trump adviser earlier this evening” about the upcoming 2024 race.
“He said there’s just no way Donald Trump drops out of this race. But he said, ‘What happens with the collective weight of four different indictments? If we see two more indictments, what does the collective weight of those indictments do?'” he recalled.
The CNN commentator then answered his question.
“What I think is very interesting right now is looking at this Republican field and seeing all of these candidates out there floating the possibility that they may pardon him. They’re not just running for vice president these days. It sounds like they’re running to be his savior,” he said.
“And so, this adviser was essentially saying, ‘Listen, maybe Donald Trump – being the most transactional person we know – does he step aside in exchange for potentially a deal for a pardon from one of these other candidates?'” he added.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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