Sassafrass
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2018
- Messages
- 605
- Reaction score
- 4,509
There's no strategy, he just doesn't know what he's doing.
There's absolutely no reason to need to establish a record or correct the record when your only job is to 1) help your clients avoid being charged with a crime and 2) defend them in court if they are.
I get it, though. The natural inclination is to respond to point out when someone is wrong. It feels bad and wrong to let someone publish something that you know is false. I have sat there while Bloomberg News put out a story about one of my clients that was just completely wrong. The clients did not want to dignify it with a response so every time the reporter called or emailed trying to get a statement from me, I had to say we had no statement at that time. We won the civil lawsuit and no criminal charges were ever brought. If we engaged in the media back-and-forth there would have been twice as much press as there was from ignoring it.
So the right answer was to ignore the press and focus on the case. IMO unless you are a plaintiff attorney trying a class action case, the right answer is usually to not engage with the press. Very few lawyers can successfully manipulate the media and they all usually have the combination of 1) sympathetic cases and victims, 2) abhorrent defendants, 3) personal charm and charisma that strikes the right tone in their representation.
Don't talk to the media! That's my advice to everyone, always. Don't do it!
Yes, this has been clear from his first appearance on the scene. Even lawyers who don't practice criminal law or even litigate at all (ahem) wouldn't make these rookie mistakes.