Donald Trump is Becoming Increasingly Desperate: Attorney

Donald Trump's legal strategy shows "desperation", an attorney has said.

Writing on Substack, attorney and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said a series of actions that lawyers working for the former president have taken show that the Republican is "increasingly transparent about his desperation to delay his criminal trials until after the election".

She explained that Trump appealed a gag order in the Washington 2020 election interference case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

In this case, a federal grand jury in August indicted Trump on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, arising from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. Trump has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.

The gag order restricts what the former president can say about witnesses and key figures involved in the trial. Trump's lawyers allege the order is "muzzling President Trump's core political speech during an historic presidential campaign."

But Vance wrote: "There's never been a need for such an order before in our nation's history, because no former president nor candidate has been so criminal-minded."

She added that the gag order is a "modest restraining order" and that there is "a large reality gap between what Trump claims the order does and what it in fact restricts him from doing."

She said that appealing the gag "shouldn't slow things down" despite believing that that is his intention.

Trump's lawyers also argued that the May 2024 date set for his trial in the Mar-a-Lago case, in which Trump is accused of hoarding classified documents after leaving presidential office, is too soon because it could potentially clash with his Washington case. They want to delay it until after the 2024 presidential election. If he wins the election, he likely could shut down the case as president. He also denies wrongdoing in this case.

Meanwhile, Smith's office on Thursday alerted U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida that Trump had asked the judge overseeing the federal election interference case in Washington for a pause until his motion for presidential immunity is "fully resolved," hours after asking that the classified documents case is delayed.

Vance said moving to delay both trials was also a tactic and that Trump will "be content to see the courts take up as much time as possible, and preferably until after election day in 2024, to render their decision and return the case for trial."

"Delay when it helps him, speed when it harms him," she added. "Certainly the courts can see through that?"

Newsweek has contacted representatives for Trump by email to comment on this story.