Reversal Of Fortune

For whatever reason, Alan Dershowitz neglected to put the best possible title on the YouTube post above -- he should have borrowed it from his 1986 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the Von Bulow Case, on wbhich the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune was based. Think about it: some big part of the Democrat 2024 strategy was to use a series of indictments to focus on Trump, yet by the middle of February, the trials under the federal indictments are likely to be delayed past the election, while at least in Dershowitz's view, the Fulton County RICO trial is on life support, with national attention focused on the DA and Nathan's Famous Hot Dog.

At 16:30, he says,

I think this case sounds like it's -- it's beyond repair and redemption. And, um, you can say who's the beneficiary of it, is it Donald Trump? Well, if he's guilty, it's Donald Trump, if he's innocent, uh, he's not the beneficiary, um, Fulton County is largely Democrat but not as overewhelmingly, for example, as New York and the District of Columbia, so it's possible he and his codefendants could get a fair trial.

Already they have been prejudiced by the fact that some of the codefendants have pleaded guilty, including lawyers. They're going to withdraw their pleas if the judge finds there was, um, a disqualification here or a violation of ethical rules. So, Fani Willis may lose her guilty pleas as well. Now, with the guilty pleas often comes a promise to cooperate, so does that weaken the case even more if she loses not only her convictions that she's already obtained through her guilty pleas? But if she loses the willingness of codefendants to cooperate, they're usually the best or among the best, uh, witnesses, although their credibility can be questioned too if they were given a benefit for their testimony.

But what a mess, what a mess! And a mess based solely on, on, on -- you know, what's going on, CNN is about to do a series, i don't know if it's been on yet, I'm not big watcher of CNN, about scandals in America, the United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper. Obviously they include all the obvious ones of elected officials who've had to leave office based on scandal -- wow, what about this one? . . . I can tell you one thing, I have never seen a DA, uh, screw up as badly as Fani Willis . . . there's no way she comes out of this thing looking like a legitimate prosecutor.

The problem for Joe and the Democrats is that now, with the holidays pretty much over, the big news stories are focusing on Joe's mental state, Fani Willis, and Nathan's Hot Dog, building nevertheless on last year's background of Judge Engoron and E Jean Carroll. The electorate, after eight years of repetitious attempts to dig up new dirt on Trump, is desensitized to Trump scandal reruns -- after E Jean, we're supposed to get Stormy Daniels yet again this spring:

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

If last year's patterns hold true, all this will do is drive Trump higher in the polls, while it appears that the classified documents case in Florida is also likely to be delayed along with the January 6 trial in Washington:

What’s also unclear is when this case will go to trial. While Judge Cannon has set a date for May, she has indicated that it is likely to be delayed.

The former president’s legal team has requested that some deadlines in the case be postponed indefinitely.

On Thursday, prosecutors also asked Judge Cannon to reject that request, writing that: “The defendants move this Court to indefinitely postpone their deadline for unspecified legal motions—their fourth attempt to adjourn different pretrial trial deadlines or the trial itself. Their objective is plain—to delay trial as long as possible”.

Jack Smith is clearly working to get Judge Cannon removed from the case, but it's hard to imagine how this would speed things along. The difficulty overall is that the lawfare strategy wasn't fully rolled out until the indictments in the middle of last year, which left Trump's attorneys ample opportunity to use ordinary legal procedure to delay the highly complex trials until after the election. Face it, ordinary murder trials are routinely delayed for years.

Meanwhile, the headlines are focused on the 25th Amendment and Joe's financial deals. Nobody at the White House seems able to turn this around, but the staff is apparently preoccupied with its internal squabbles:

Amidst reports of internal tension, John Kirby is said to be frustrated with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s involvement in his press briefings, particularly her role in selecting reporters for questions.

The New York Times reported, citing sources, that “Mr. Kirby had privately acknowledged, when asked, that he would one day like to be named press secretary, and he has expressed frustration that Ms. Jean-Pierre picked the reporters who ask him questions at briefings,” a role currently filled by Karine Jean-Pierre.

Recently promoted to White House national security advisor, Kirby’s new position elevates his responsibility in coordinating communications across several agencies, marking a significant step up from his previous role.

Joe's handlers will never allow a cis white male to get into a position where he could actually help Joe out. Somebody else has been calling the shots all along -- as Dershowitz says, what a mess.