Donald Trump is having a hell of a time finding a lawyer for his federal case

The Department of Justice unsealed Donald Trump’s indictment last Friday, and the federal government seems to have a very strong case. It feels like we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, right? Like, what will he do, what violence and insurrection will that guy incite this time? Regardless, it feels like seven years after this hellish journey began, we’re in the endgame. It’s very likely that Trump goes to prison for obstruction of justice, mishandling classified documents and violating the Espionage Act. It’s even more likely that he’ll go to prison given the fact that his lawyers are all quitting and he can’t seem to find a half-decent criminal defense attorney to represent him in his trial:

Donald Trump spent the day before his historic appearance in federal court scrambling to find a qualified Florida lawyer willing to join his defense team as he faces the Justice Department’s first prosecution of a former president.

After touching down in Miami on Monday, Trump spent the afternoon interviewing prospective lawyers and meeting with his legal team, along with other top advisers, to discuss the case, in which he is accused of mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, according to people familiar with the sessions. Several prominent Florida attorneys declined to take Trump on as a client after two of the key lawyers handling the documents matter — Jim Trusty and John Rowley — resigned last week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trusty and Rowley’s departure was sudden and unexpected, leaving Trump jockeying to identify a lawyer ahead of his Tuesday appearance in federal court in Miami, where rules require practicing attorneys to be a member in good standing of the Florida bar or to be sponsored by one before appearing. Veteran Florida litigator Christopher Kise, who joined the team in the fall and has an extensive network in the Florida bar, has led the search for a lawyer and cast a seemingly wide net in the state. Kise declined to comment.

Disagreements over legal strategy have hindered the search for new defense attorneys, according to people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Some on Trump’s team have pushed to pursue an aggressively partisan strategy in which they would accuse the Justice Department of prosecutorial misconduct and weaponizing the legal system against Trump. The other camp, a person briefed on the situation said, is urging the former president to put together a traditional defense team and believes that the case is winnable at trial through careful jury selection — one juror is all a defendant needs to convince to avoid conviction — and that a scorched-earth strategy could alienate a jury and the country.

[From WaPo]

The Post then volunteers some names on Trump’s shortlist, and they are a murderer’s row of Florida’s legal dirtbags, many of whom have faced criminal charges themselves. From what I’ve seen of Trump’s taste in lawyers – plus, he has to take whatever slim pickings he can get – he tends to prefer the “mob lawyer” type – someone who seemed “connected,” someone who is used to taking orders from a made guy. I’m just saying, a lot of mobsters retire to Florida. Anyway, this trial is going to be fun – Trump isn’t dicking around with some outer-borough dime-store lawyer, he’s dealing with the full weight of the DOJ and the Office of the Special Counsel. Special Counsel Jack Smith has spent the past ten months putting together an extremely strong case.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, DOJ.