Former President Donald Trump has tapped a prominent white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor as his lead counsel one day before his expected arraignment, raising questions about the timing of move and his legal strategy overseeing the former president's criminal indictment.
New York City attorney Todd Blanche announced Monday that he had joined Trump's legal team in an email to Politico, adding that he resigned from the prestigious law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, of which he was a partner, because he was "asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up."
Blanche will work alongside Susan Necheles and Joe Tacopina, lawyers who've represented the former president throughout the investigation that resulted in the indictment.
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Legal expert Mike Davis hailed the hiring of Blanche as "a great pick for President Trump," in an interview on Fox News later Monday, noting his previous representation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
"He represented Paul Manafort and did an excellent job there, so he is a great pick by President Trump," Davis, who previously served as Chief Nominations Counsel to former Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, said on "America Reports."
While the timing of Blanche's hiring seems peculiar with just hours until Trump's arraignment, Davis said it doesn't necessarily indicate a strategy shift by the former president's legal team and is considered "routine."
"I think it’s routine. It’s because Alvin Bragg has politicized this prosecution against President Trump based upon bogus-trumped-up charges that have been previously declined," he said. "Bragg is bringing in political appointees from the Biden Justice Department at the most senior level…. Everyone thought it was dead, and they revived this zombie case, so it’s smart for President Trump to gear up for the indictment and the trial."
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy also weighed in on the unexpected legal development, telling host Martha MacCallum on "The Story" that the last-minute move by Trump "makes sense."
"We talked a lot about the witnesses because that is sort of the information that we have in front of us. So there’s been a lot of talk about Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen and other people who might feature in this," McCarthy said. "But at the end of the day, this is going to be the case of a document, a business records case. We’re talking now about a new lawyer on the Trump team who has a lot of experience in how white-collar defense cases work. Those tend to be document-intensive cases. It seems to me that this is a case that you probably want to do your best to try to win without it ever going to trial."
"They have, I think, immense reasons legally to try to get this case dismissed, whether it’s on the statute of limitations grounds, on the question whether Bragg has the jurisdiction to incorporate a federal campaign finance charge into his indictment. So I think this is probably in the wheelhouse of a former prosecutor with that kind of experience."
Trump, an early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, flew into New York Monday afternoon ahead of his arraignment on Tuesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating Trump's alleged involvement in hush money payments, totaling $130,000, to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, to keep her quiet ahead of that year’s presidential election over her claims she had sexual encounters years earlier with Trump. The former president denies sleeping with Daniels and denies falsifying business records to keep the payment concealed.
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The indictment remains under seal. However, if the charges relate to the hush money scandal, prosecutors are expected to argue that the sum given to Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal were improper donations to the Trump campaign, which helped his candidacy during the 2016 election.
The indictment makes Trump the first former president in American history to be charged with a crime.
