Replies

I wish the Trump Campaign’s job to try something, and they didn’t.

Just after the election, I gave money for the campaign’s litigation efforts and volunteered, through a connection, to go wherever they needed me on my own dime. But, as time went on and I read everything filed by the campaigns lawyers, I realized that, for whatever reason, Trump’s lawyers were more interested in the appearance of activity rather than actually accomplishing anything.

They frequently brought suits alleging election fraud, and then either voluntarily dismissed the suit or dropped the fraud claims before they could be heard (such as in the big federal case in PA). Other times, they filed suit too late to make a difference, and made sure not to ask the judge to actually consider the case on time, which is what they did in Fulton County. Or they intervened in the Texas lawsuit in the Supreme Court, where there was no jurisdiction.

Trump has at least some good lawyers around him, so I have to believe this is intentional. They’re putting on a show, and the only question in my mind is whether the audience is Trump’s supporters or Trump himself.

If they had lots of evidence of fraud, virtually every disputed state has a procedure for bringing those claims in court, but the Trump campaign did not really purse any state law election challenges other than one in Michigan. And even there, they did not file a quo warranto action after the Michigan electors were certified even though the courts spelled out the procedure for them.

The strategy, from what I could see, was to litigate in federal court on the issues of 1) elections not conducted according to statute, and 2) violations of the Equal Protection Clause in line with Bush v. Gore. I think they were trying to stay away from state courts to avoid getting a corrupt judge and the res adjudicata affect of that. (In WI, the state and federal cases argued different points.) As Prof. Dershowitz has noted, Trump should win PA and WI at SCOTUS, if the case is heard in time. CJ Roberts has scheduled things to obstruct a meaningful adjudication at SCOTUS. That's not the legal team's fault.

The backup plan is to get the state legislatures involved. That still could happen before Jan. 6th as those legislatures start new terms now with new members. They were very close in Arizona. Guiliani said two votes. GA should be ready to decertify after the hearings. Monday could be interesting.

[Trump has at least some good lawyers around him, so I have to believe this is intentional. They’re putting on a show, and the only question in my mind is whether the audience is Trump’s supporters or Trump himself.]

That’s my take on it as well. I think Trump wants to take it right up to the line without going over. If he wants to step over it, I gotta wonder how many will follow him. His problem is that while he engenders loyalty in people who don’t deal with him on a day-to-day basis - the people he does deal with tend to want to stab him in the back. Whereas people like Franco and Pinochet - I expect they inspired intense personal loyalty among their immediate followers. (How else would they have followed Franco’s/Pinochet’s orders to carry out acts at odds with the established governments of the time - with all the personal risks that entailed?) That’s something you need if you want to step over the line.

You’ve got someone like John Bolton who has served in multiple GOP administrations that were far less hawkish than him. Not a critical peep out of Bolton about those administrations. HR McMaster is a Republican who did some work for both parties, and was never as vociferous in his criticism of either Democrat or Republican administrations. Until Trump.

Basically, Trump just doesn’t play well with his subordinates. That abrasive Twitter persona, on steroids, is likely the face of his relationship with his direct reports. And that’s a problem if he’s doing what I think he’s doing. You need the people around you to follow your orders, and to do things that were familiar to people with names like Franco and Pinochet. How does that happen when your direct reports hate your guts?