'I think they're desperate': Trump biographer slams letter from Trump lawyers to Garland
The letter Donald Trump posted Tuesday night showing his attorneys demanding a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland shows Trump's lawyers are "desperate" in their handling of special counsel Jack Smith's probe, according to the former president's biographer.
Appearing on the 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, Tim O'Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, was asked what he thought of the letter, in which Trump's lawyers, John Rowley and Jim Trusty, say Trump is being "treated unfairly" in the investigations into his role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as well as the documents improperly kept at Mar-a-Lago.
"I think they're desperate," O'Brien said to the host. "This is not an astute or strategic action by lawyers who feel like they are in control of a narrative or that they are in control of where this particular investigation is heading. They are doing what Trump has always done. They are trying to politicize an investigation and they are not responsive around the law or the rule of law."
O'Brien also called into question the narrative that Trump can easily beat back all types of investigations.
"Trump, for all of the mythology around trump having nine lives in terms of being held accountable in the courtroom, he's never in his entire life face the kind of heavyweight investigations that surround him on a number of fronts by very purposeful prosecutors who are assembling the fact pattern and trying to determine whether he committed financial fraud, whether he tried to overturn the 2020 election illegally, whether he abused the power of his office in terms of mishandling classified documents, and on and on," he added.
For their part, O'Brien said, prosecutors are in a time crunch.
"I think there is some urgency on the part of the prosecutors now to bring some of these things to a close so they are not occurring and the meat of the prosecution is not occurring during the primary season next year at least some of the initial filings," he said. "And I think there is a lot of desperation in the Trump camp about all of this."
Watch: Trump's team thinks Jack Smith indictment referral is a 'foregone conclusion': impeachment lawyerFormer President Donald Trump posted a letter from his attorneys on Tuesday evening, demanding a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss the "outrageous and unlawful" investigations by special counsel Jack Smith, who is weighing whether to pursue charges against the former president for either the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, or the theft and retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Speaking to CNN's Abby Phillip during a panel, Robert Ray, who succeeded Ken Starr as independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation and advised Trump during his first impeachment, suggested that this is an ominous sign for Trump.
"They assume there will be a charging decision near, because all signs are that these cases both the January 6th investigations and the documents investigation case are wrapping up or coming close to wrapping up, and want to get in their say before anything might happen," said New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. "I don't know how this will be received or taken. But yes, it speaks to the fact that they are taking this incredibly seriously and want to deal with it."
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