Denial of Mark Meadows' effort to move his Georgia RICO case to federal court is the latest in a series of blows for Trump-related defendants in criminal cases

Donald Trump and Mark Meadows

 

What might be called the constellation of Donald Trump criminal cases has been marked in the early going by incompetent lawyering, writes longtime Alabama attorney Donald Watkins. The latest example involves Mark Meadows, former chief of staff in the Trump administration.

Under the headline "Mark Meadows Loses Bid to Move His Georgia State RICO Case to Federal Court," Watkins writes:

[Yesterday] , a federal judge in Atlanta issued an Order rejecting a bid by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to remove his Georgia state RICO case to federal court in that city. Meadows was indicted on state racketeering charges, along with Donald J. Trump and 17 other co-defendants.

The racketeering case brought against Trump, Meadows, and the other 17 defendants is being prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, who specializes in criminal RICO cases.

The adverse ruling was a blow to Meadows and the overall defensive effort in this RICO case.

What about specifics regarding inept lawyering? Watkins provides them:

Meadows’ motion to remove the case to federal court was lightweight, ill-conceived, amateurish, and counter-productive.

The pretrial losses for Donald Trump (and his co-defendants) in his Atlanta, New York, Washington, D.C., and Miami criminal cases are mounting faster than anything I have seen in my nearly five-decades long legal career.

The defense lawyering in these cases has been stunningly weak, totally lacking in creativity, and downright embarrassing. Law students could do a better job of representing Trump and the 18 RICO co-defendants in the Georgia case.

The criminal defense teams in Trump's four cases have been running a clown show since day one.

Based upon the rate and severity of defeats Donald Trump and his co-defendants are suffering during the pretrial proceedings in his criminal cases, Trump’s fate in these cases will be sealed in about 90 days.

That is more bad news in an already grim picture for the defendants. In fact, Watkins states, Trump could set a record in courtroom history -- and it's not the good kind:

The self-inflicted pretrial mistakes and miscues are killing Trump's chances of winning any one of his four criminal cases. His co-defendants likely are doomed, as well.

What is more, Donald Trump probably will become the first criminal defendant in history to lose on all 91 felony counts against him, which I believe would establish a record in the annals of American jurisprudence.