Semantics.

  • krayj@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    What’s the strategy in that? Claiming she was never his attorney forfeits what shreds of privilege might be left of their communications and is also one less person he can blame “advice of counsel” on.

    • kmartburrito@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nothing really counts anyway as I’m betting nearly all of their discussions involved crimes, which aren’t protected by attorney client privilege.

      It’s funny though, trump acting like there isn’t record of their relationship.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Minor correction: Admitting you committed a crime in the past is protected. The attorney can still tiptoe around the fact that they know you committed it, by defending you on procedural or clerical grounds. For instance, they can attack the evidence that has been submitted against you, because it was mishandled, or because the equipment used to gather it hadn’t been calibrated recently enough, or for any number of reasons. Even if they know you committed the crime, they can still ensure that your court proceedings are fair.

        Admitting that you plan on committing future crimes is not covered. The attorney can’t be party to future crimes, and admitting you plan on committing crimes makes them a co-conspirator if they don’t rat you out.

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Read my second paragraph, because I covered that already. The attorney can’t help you plan or execute future crimes, because that makes them a co-conspirator.

            And from what I’ve read, that’s pretty much exactly what Trump tried to do. He apparently tried to use the “hypothetically if I were to commit this crime, what would be the best way to do it” method. The issue is that this is just a blatant attempt at getting around things, and courts don’t tend to like it when you try to skirt their rules.

            • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              To be pedantic, you specifically said future crimes. A discussion between a lawyer and a client, about past crimes where the lawyer was a participant in the crime are not covered.

      • Furimbus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        While I agree that he’s an idiot, I tend to think his disavowal has more to do with his malignant narcissism: he can’t accept being associated with people who others view as weak, and in his view taking a guilty plea means you’re weak. In his mind, saying he knows her and hired her means admitting he made a bad judgment call, and that’s simply not something he’s capable of admitting (even to himself.)

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Bets on him claiming that she was never his lawyer and yet attorney client privilege still applies for some reason?

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      He’s going to just say she’s fabricating everything. Probably will start insulting her about irrelevant things soon too.

    • stinky613@lemmy.sdf.org
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      Because his legal defense wasn’t based on claiming attorney-client; it was based on the idea that he was just asking legal hypotheticals to / legal advice from legal experts

      Now two of these lawyers have taken plea deals to (presumably) testify against Trump. Also, by virtue of the guilty plea in this case where Trump is a codefendant, that privilege would likely be voided anyway

  • Dippy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!! MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted,

    That was a challenging first sentence to read.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Moreover, Trump himself on Nov. 14th, 2020, identified Powell as being part of his legal team by tweeting, “I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!”‘

    https://www.mediaite.com/news/trumps-denial-that-sidney-powell-was-ever-his-lawyer-prompts-internet-sleuths-to-post-clip-of-giuliani-calling-her-exactly-that/

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    1 year ago

    Step 1 - “She was never my attorney.”

    Step 2 - “All our conversations are confidential attorney/client privelege.”

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      Yeah, she just pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy with him. That confession alone voids attorney/client privilege.

      • Cort@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ah so it’s more like:

        Step 1: attorney/client privilege no longer applies due to guilty plea.

        Step 2: disown

        • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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          I can’t see how it’d help him, though. She was in the meetings. She has (or at least had) the texts and emails. Her testimony could crucify Trump in court. Which would be fitting considering that the MAGA folks seem to think he’s the second coming.

          Also, if she gives prosecutors a hard time and fails to turn over evidence or testify honestly, she could end up screwing up her bargain and be worse off than before.

          • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Her testimony could crucify Trump in court.

            I’m assuming this is what got her a plea deal, but of course I’m an internet rando and I don’t know for sure.

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    When he finally ends up in prison where he belongs, he’ll claim he was never Donald Trump.

  • blazera@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    man he’s got such a distinct firehose of words constantly incriminating himself but also trying to cover up incriminating himself. ‘I dont even know this girl, she’s a criminal that’s never worked for me, but her only crime is saying what I’ve been saying this entire time, the election was stolen and I support everything she does, amazing woman, I have nothing to do with her’

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      It’s his Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Everybody slings that term around like it’s widely applicable. It’s not. People that meet the DSM V “rules” are fairly rare. Trump knocks it out the park like no human I’ve ever heard of, let alone met IRL.

      Here’s his thinking on this one:

      • Powell is a bad person because she betrayed me.
      • I don’t hire bad people, or make mistakes at all, ever, therefore she was never my attorney.

      He’s not lying, he truly believes the shit he says. Mom was like this. She would say shit that was demonstrably false, did not matter, she was right. Ever known another human for 50 years and never heard them admit fault, even a tiny, tiny bit? It’s straight freaky.

      • paintbucketholder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There’s literally deposition in front of lawyers, in various court cases, with Trump being taped, on video, saying “well, if it feels true, then it must be true!”

        One was the Trump University case where he was claiming that it was fine that people who had never even met him were saying they had been personally instructed by Donald Trump, because “if they felt that way, then it was true in a way” and therefore not fraud.

        The other one was him suing a New York Times journalist who had found that Trump was really only worth somewhere between $150 and $250 million. Trump claimed that he was worth more than $2.7 billion and therefore sued for $5 billion.

        In the deposition, Trump claimed his wealth fluctuated and depended on his feelings on any given day.

      • squiblet@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I have the unfortunate experience of knowing people who hit every single characteristic on the list. Lack of empathy, defensiveness, aggressive gibberish, gaslighting, lying, fragile ego, impatience, desire for attention, social media addiction, lack of appreciation, willingness to take advantage of other people while offering them nothing, envy, difficulty interacting with people normally, problems with seeing how others perceive their behavior, hidden insecurity.

        Anyway, he’s such a habitual liar that it doesn’t matter to him whether he really believes something or remembers it to be true. It’s the new story and he’ll stick to it for as long as needed.

  • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    This is very very bad for Trump because Powell is also a defendant in Jack Smith’s federal case being tried under Judge Chutkan.

    Powell obviously knows that her guilty plea in Georgia can and will be used by Smith in the federal case, so what it basically says is that she’s going to be a cooperating witness (she really has no choice) for Smith as well.

    Powell was there at the infamous December 18th meeting wherein things like shutting down all voting and declaring martial law were allegedly discussed. This in turn means that she can provide convincing and potentially damning evidence as to Trump’s knowledge of and intent with regard to how the election had actually played out, and specifically with regard to his desire to overturn it.

    There’s a lot more to be said about this, but I have to go make dinner.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, there will be more than enough signed statements and other written communication to prove the contrary, I’m sure.

  • nucleative@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well kids. This is why we pay our co-conspirator’s legal bills. And our own legal bills. And why we listen to advice of counsel. And why we remain loyal to those who are loyal to us.

    Oh yeah, and skipping on the crimes helps as well.

  • Silverseren@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Ah, so what you’re saying is that attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply to your communications with her, since she was never your attorney, right?

      • qantravon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Any discussion of planned or ongoing criminal activity was never covered in the first place. But, just because she flipped, doesn’t mean that any communication outside that wouldn’t be covered. If she was acting as his attorney, that discussion would still be privileged. However, if this statement by Trump pisses her off enough she could possibly use it and throw him under the bus with that information which, even though not directly criminal, could still be damaging to him.