The great American lawyer, Clarence Darrow once said that “A man who represents himself has a fool for a client.”
Luckily, I have never had to represent myself nor would I, but I have had many fools for clients.
I had one client who was heard to say on a telephone call, “My lawyer told me we shouldn’t be talking on this phone because it might be t-a-p-p-e-d.”
It was.
Another client, under investigation for murder, was asked by an informant wearing a recording device, “So what’s it like to take someone for their last rides?”
After a pause the client answered in a very bored tone, “Aw, you know, they do the usual begging and pleading. “
Try and explain that one to a jury.
My friend, Jim McGraw, was in court with a client asking the judge to appoint someone to represent the client, who was indigent.
Before the judge responded, the client offered thee opinion that “It has to be someone really good because these are serious crimes I committed.”
All of these experiences aside, I never had a client who implicated himself in tweets.
This past week, we watched the former Director of the FBI, James Comey, testify before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee about the events surrounding his firing and related matters.
As a democrat and someone who voted for Hillary Clinton, I had misgivings about Comey’s conduct during the FBI’s investigation into her flawed use of her e-mail server.
Despite the fact that he initially cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing, he did her no favors with the harsh criticism he heaped upon her during the press conference he held to announce there would be no charges.
Not only was this criticism unprecedented and counter to the Bureau’s policy but it compelled him to announce that he would re-open the investigation in the closing days of the campaign only to exonerate her of criminal conduct again.
While the Clinton’s would wholly blame Comey for her loss, it should be remembered that Comey didn’t counsel her to use a private server in the first instance and no one but Clinton and Huma Abedin are to blame for her e-mails turning up on Anthony Weiner’s computer.
Whatever one thinks about Comey’s judgment and conduct during the election, it is undeniable that he is an honest person who tried to discharge his duties as FBI Director with integrity.
As Comey noted in his testimony, the President of the United States had the authority to fire him without stating any reason.
That, however, was more than Trump could bear.
So, he took to Twitter to declare that Comey was a “nut job” and he fired him because of the probe into Russian hacking of the election.
Whether or not that rises to the level of Obstruction of Justice remains to be seen. Presumably it will be a judgment that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller will make.
Indeed, it was what led the Deputy Attorney-General to appoint a Special Prosecutor when heretofore there was no compelling reason to appoint one.
That appears to be where Trump’s tweeting has gotten him in the short term.
Trump’s staff has now taken the unique position that the media pays too much attention to Trump’s tweets.
Needless to say, a more productive strategy than blaming the media for reporting on the tweets would be to encourage Trump to stop tweeting but that appears to be as likely as getting him to voluntarily stop breathing.
Trump is said to be so dissatisfied with Attorney-General Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself from involvement in the various investigations into the hacking, collusion with his campaign officials and General Flynn that Sessions offered to resign.
Anything that prompts Session to resign would be a positive development.
In the meantime Trump has hired his personal attorney from New York City to represent him in the various potential criminal investigations.
Reportedly, the attorney has no criminal law experience and appears to be Trump with a law degree.
One would have thought that he would have cautioned Trump not to tweet in response to Comey’s appearance before the Senate committee.
If he did, that restraint lasted all of one day.
Before this is over Trump will alienate everyone, cabinet members, aides, lawyers and perhaps even his son-in-law.
I can’t imagine how frustrating and impossible he would be to represent.
That’s the difficulty in having a fool for a client.