Op-Ed: The baffling state of Trump’s vast legal issues – What’s actually happening?

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of business fraud as part of a plan to cover up hush money paid to a porn star in 2016 – Copyright AFP/File Sergei GAPON

Note: This is not “trial by media”. There’s nothing like enough hard information on this subject to do much more than speculate and ask a few relevant questions.  

Nor is there enough credible information to accuse anyone at all of anything, including jaywalking.

No inferences whatsoever are made regarding specific people, lawsuits, legal liabilities of any parties, or the guilt or innocence of parties involved in any relevant legal proceedings past, current, and pending.

Trump’s nigh-legendary vast array of legal issues regularly get headlines. The latest major news is that New York has asked the court to refuse bail bond on the E. Jean Carroll case for various statutory reasons. Suffice it to say that NY says that the company posting a bond can’t post a bond in NY and doesn’t meet the criteria for posing a bond.

This sort of procedural situation is one where the legalities boil down to absolute fundamentals at the Yes or No level. That seems to happen frequently.

Never mind what you (or I) think of Trump. What’s missing from this much-too-lengthy narrative is a clear picture of the sheer range and number of legal issues related to Trump. That includes him suing other people and people suing him.

I tried to find a definitive list of Trump cases. The most current thing I could find was from Forbes, “Tracking Trump investigations and lawsuits”. This is a truly monumental list of cases, including outcomes where applicable. All due credit to Forbes for having the patience and stamina to compile it.

Why does this ocean of cases exist at all? This is no way to run a mausoleum. The general theory of the online pundits is simple enough – That Trump uses legal procedures for managing time and publicity.

I don’t buy it. It’s way too simple and off-target. That’s a bit like saying if you block one or two bullets, the machine gun might lose interest in shooting at you. It may take up knitting instead. It hasn’t.

…But as basic legal practice, what is this unsightly legal morass supposed to achieve? What is the logic of getting Trump to get deeper into the quicksand with every second in court?

Like many people, I have a view of Trump’s legal support over the years which is a lot less than flattering. That said, the fact is that a lot of high-profile people are “helped” into impossible situations.

A lot of the dumb stuff that oozes from all types of politics is often done under advisement, not even theoretically related to common sense. Public relations are the usual geniuses involved in the more absurd situations.

…And? So what? Trump so far has incurred massive legal fees, countersuits, and additional suits, and used up an astonishing amount of time and money on his legal issues. He’s arguably in a far worse position now than he was last year.

At what point does this absolute dog’s breakfast of a legal situation end?

I’d say that someone doing the advising is well out of their depth in legal matters. In legal terms, these excessive whimsical forays into amateur theatre are potentially lethal. For instance – He’s now at risk of jail for a completely pointless and avoidable breach of a gag order. Why?   

It’s impossible to allow a client to get into this legal multi-black holes situation without a lot of guidance from someone. It’s highly unlikely Trump ever wanted to take such huge risks. Anyone with half an alleged brain could have easily said “Cut your losses!” They didn’t and haven’t.

To be fair, the courts have tried to shut down some of the more egregious matters and taken disciplinary action. You’d think that’d be a bit of a hint to America’s Least Impressive in their various capacities.

Maybe not. The DJT stock listing has raised yet more legal issues for Trump.  There might be compliance and financial issues just as difficult as they NYC case. There are internal lawsuits. There may or may not be stockholder problems.

I’m no admirer of Trump. I also don’t believe anyone’s in that much of a hurry to put so many loaded guns to his own head. This just doesn’t make sense.

It might be worth a judicial investigation to find out how all this legal brilliance happened. How is it possible that supposedly living, fully qualified, legal practitioners can participate in such utter chaos?