(Photographer:
Jabin
Botsford/The
Washington
Post/Bloomberg
via
Getty
Images)
By
all
accounts,
Donald
Trump
has
always
been
a
nightmare
of
a
client.
But
while
he
used
to
just
stiff
his
attorneys
after
the
fact,
these
days
he’s
pushing
attorneys
to
take
increasingly
stupid
and
borderline
(and
potentially
not-so-borderline)
contemptuous
moves.
Like
when
Christina
Bobb
represented
to
federal
law
enforcement
that
Trump
had
returned
all
the
classified
documents
at
Mar-a-Lago
in
lieu
of
actually
searching
the
loo.
She’s
running
“election
integrity”
for
the
RNC
these
days
so
they’ve
definitely
got
their
top
people
on
that
task.
The
former
president
put
his
attorneys
in
another
tight
spot
this
afternoon
when
the
jury
pool
entered
the
courtroom,
prompting
everyone
to
stand
and
face
the
people
performing
their
civic
duty.
Everyone
except…
Of
course
not.
Is
it
unwise?
Sure
it
betrays
contempt
for
the
whole
process,
which
could
end
up
costing
him
another
grand
or
so
that
he’ll
easily
raise
by
asking
some
laid
off
coal
miner
barely
making
his
mortgage
payments
to
fork
over
a
recurring
donation
to
the
billionaire
because
wokeness
or
something.
But
from
Trump’s
perspective,
what’s
to
be
gained
by
observing
basic
decorum?
Any
potential
juror
biased
against
Trump
doesn’t
care
whether
or
not
he
stands.
Any
potential
juror
in
the
MAGA
tank
isn’t
going
to
take
offense
and
probably
gets
off
on
the
idea
that
Trump
is
such
a
big
shot
that
he
views
all
the
jurors
as
peasants.
In
the
middle,
any
juror
just
taking
the
job
seriously
without
prejudice
is
going
to
vote
to
convict
because
to
the
extent
there
are
faults
in
the
hush
money
prosecution
—
and
there
are!)
—
none
of
them
will
be
in
the
hands
of
the
fact-finders
on
the
jury.
They’re
going
to
dutifully
note
that
he
made
these
payments
and
he
misrepresented
what
they
were
for
and
hand
that
back
to
the
judge.
None
of
it
makes
any
difference
to
Trump.
He
can
whip
up
a
petulant
show
of
how
much
you
disrespect
the
whole
affair
and
soak
up
“you
show
’em,
sir”
accolades
from
his
devotees.
Mariotti
says
“any
competent
lawyer”
would
tell
Trump
to
get
his
act
together
and
stand,
but
the
thing
is…
he
has
competent
lawyers
in
this
case
and
they
almost
certainly
have
told
him
all
this.
He
just
doesn’t
care.
And,
he
honestly
might
be
right
that
he
has
nothing
to
lose.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.