Irish Examiner view: Trump has squirmed out of worse

It would not be sensible to size up former US president Donald Trump for an orange prison jumpsuit just yet

Former US president Donald Trump defiantly raises a fist as he departs Trump Tower in New York on his way to the New York attorney general's office. Picture: Julia Nikhinson/AP

Enemies of former US president Donald Trump may have wished for some considerable time that they’d see the day when the man with the curious orange skin pallor would be taken away in a matching orange prison suit.

While there appears to be many reasons for the former occupant of the White House to be concerned about the mounting legal perils he faces, he has in the past brazenly shook off many similar threats, and his enemies fear that will be the case this time around as well.

The raid on Monday of his ‘Winter White House’ at Mar-a-Lago by the FBI, where they were apparently searching for classified documents sparked typical “witch hunt” outrage from Trump and his cohorts. 

What is hidden in the detail of the raid is that it would have had to have been approved by the higher echelons in the US department of justice, up to and including attorney general Merrick Garland. 

Mr Garland is a cautious man and would certainly not have risked irking Trump and his rump on a whim. Details of exactly what the FBI was tasked at finding are sketchy, but his own attorney, Christina Bobb, has been quoted as saying: “They were looking for both classified information that they think should not have been removed from the White House, as well as presidential records.”

There is an irony here, in that the laws under which the FBI secured the warrant to search the premises were signed off by none other than Trump himself he was while in office. A case of Citizen Trump breaking a law that president Trump made a felony, perhaps? 

On Wednesday, Trump appeared at the offices of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, to give a deposition and in the process utilised the Fifth Amendment — a process allowing people not to incriminate themselves under oath — on more than 400 occasions. 

The irony that he previously criticised other people for ‘taking the fifth’ — “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the fifth?” — was obviously lost on him.

And yesterday he appointed attorney Drew Findling to represent him in a case in Georgia where prosecutors are investigating potential criminal charges, including racketeering and conspiracy, against Trump and his associates.

This is perhaps the biggest legal jeopardy the former president faces right now. But it would not be sensible to size Trump up for an orange prison jumpsuit just yet. He has squirmed out of worse scenarios before.