Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said Wednesday that Donald Trump only has himself to blame for failing to secure top-level attorneys to represent him amid his growing legal woes.
“The struggle is one of his own making,” Weissmann told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. Trump is reportedly soon facing another indictment, this time in special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into his bid to flip the 2020 election result.
“As a prosecutor and as a defense lawyer I really believe every defendant is entitled to legal representation. They are entitled to have zealous advocacy,” Weissmann explained.
Trump’s “exalted position” as a former POTUS would usually ensure “the very cream of the crop in terms of the caliber of lawyering,” he noted. But Trump’s failure to listen to advice “means that you’re buying just a heap of trouble.”
“That is the reason that you find so many lawyers unwilling to represent him, even though he used to be the President of the United States, which is a very sad state,” he added.
