It seems like the micro-managing, penny-pinching businessman in Donald Trump may have played a part in how his defense team handled his Manhattan hush money trial, at least according to lead Trump attorney Todd Blanche.
The former president was found guilty on 34 felony counts by a dozen New Yorkers on Thursday. Blanche said Trump was “very much involved” in conversations over which jurors to object to, suggesting the role he played as the trial went forward.
“He was right there with the whole team talking about the potential jurors,” Blanche told Fox News' Jesse Watters. Indeed, the former president and his lawyer made every decision together, Blanche claimed
Blanche went on to call his client a “smart guy” who “knows what he’s doing,” and would sometimes joke that “he wanted to be the litigator.”
Blanche lamented that Trump was unable to avoid a jury of his peers, though he did not directly attack them the way his client has, instead lauding their professionalism.
“Look, was I satisfied? We put a motion [for an acquittal] in because we said we could not get a fair jury in Manhattan. And that’s not a — I’m not being disparaging to the jurors, man, they were great,” Blanche told Watters. “They showed up on time every day. They were committed. They paid attention. But, we’re in a situation where we had a very limited number of people we could strike.”
He added that an “overwhelming” number of potential jurors had “very strong” negative opinions of the former president.
While Blanche maintained that “it was an honor” for him to “spend the last few weeks” defending Trump, he appeared to also be excusing his own shaky performance by sharing the blame with his client.
Mere hours after the verdict, he appeared for an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, claiming the former president came up with his own defense strategy. Collins had pointed out that Trump appeared pass notes it to his attorneys on numerous occasions.
“Who ultimately was in charge of the defense strategy here?” she asked. “Was it you or was it Donald Trump?”
“It was both of us. If there’s a lawyer that comes in and says that they’re in charge of their defense strategy, they’re not doing a service to their client,” Blanche replied. Again, every defendant, everybody who has their life on the line in history, will tap their lawyer every once in a while and say, ‘Hey, what about this? What about that?'"
