Lawyers for former President Trump in his New York City trial have filed a flurry of legal requests that a judge has shot down. Whether they succeeded or not wasn't really the point, Axios reports. The aggressive legal strategy, meant to both keep Trump happy and win in the court of public opinion, is a product of the unprecedented criminal trial of a former president as he campaigns for reelection. Trump's legal team has used delay tactics in his four criminal cases, seeking to punt his other trials until after the November general election. This "has been a singularly successful strategy on the part of the defense," said criminal defense lawyer Richard Serafini, a former federal and Manhattan prosecutor. Trump "has reportedly been unhappy with [his attorney Todd Blanche] and some of the others that he believes were too soft," said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. Even if arguments for mistrials, gag order changes and subpoenas have little chance of success, lawyers are trying to appease their client, Rahmani said.
Even if Trump is convicted, his team is still playing to win with public opinion. "Trump has always been a fighter, so they're fighting for the court of public opinion as much as the courtroom," Rahmani said. If Trump is convicted, he will appeal, so his attorneys want to preserve these arguments for the appeal, according to Rahmani. Judge Juan Merchan nixed two mistrial motions in two days, declined to narrow a gag order to allow Trump to speak about a star witness and blasted a bid to subpoena a prosecutor. A federal appeals court separately rejected another attempt to end the gag order. "Though Merchan said he won't modify the order, he is being more lax in enforcing it," Rahmani said. "I don't think Merchan has the stomach to take the unprecedented step of jailing a former president." Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was expected to finish his testimony Thursday, and the case may go to the jury next week.
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