Donald Trump wanted to deliver a closing argument at his bank fraud trial. But when his lawyers wouldn’t agree that he’d follow the rules, the judge blew the plan apart.
I think he meant people who do have representation, but still chose to do the closing argument themselves. That one should be a lot more rare, I think.
It goes further than that. Court rules dictate that clients are not allowed to make closing arguments if they have an actual lawyer working the case. Trump would have to fire his lawyers and represent himself or maybe get permission from the judge.
In this case the judge said - ok you can make closing arguments but only for appropriate topics, and you can’t violate the limited gag order protecting court staff. That was unacceptable to Trump.
Has this ever happened before in the history of courts? A non-lawyer defendant with representation doing a closing argument himself?
There are definitely crazy stupid people who choose to represent themselves in court. There are some great SovCit videos on YouTube.
It does not tend to go well for them.
I think he meant people who do have representation, but still chose to do the closing argument themselves. That one should be a lot more rare, I think.
Any sane lawyer would advice their client not to do that
It goes further than that. Court rules dictate that clients are not allowed to make closing arguments if they have an actual lawyer working the case. Trump would have to fire his lawyers and represent himself or maybe get permission from the judge.
In this case the judge said - ok you can make closing arguments but only for appropriate topics, and you can’t violate the limited gag order protecting court staff. That was unacceptable to Trump.
Trump never wanted to bring a normal closing argument. All he wanted was a platform for himself and his overblown ego.