Lawyer That Deposed Trump Says Let Him Talk And He'll Sink Himself

A lawyer that has previously deposed Donald Trump for a civil lawsuit offered some tips for how prosecutors can take down Trump without much work at all. Specifically, the lawyer says that the best thing you can do is to just allow Trump to talk, and he'll eventually sink himself. The lawyer also said you can get Trump to open up even more if you come at him with flattery, rather than going into a deposition or questioning him on the stand in a hostile way. Farron Cousins discusses these tips.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Donald Trump, of course, took the stand yesterday, in the New York Fraud trial. And, uh, uh, if you don't understand why I'm laughing, then you obviously weren't, uh, paying attention to what happened. But I say all of that to tell you this. Politico on Monday published an interview that they did with a lawyer by the name of Deborah Baum. Now, Deborah Baum was representing Jeffrey Zaria celebrity chef, um, when Zaria was sued by Donald Trump. Now, Zaria was supposed to open a restaurant in Donald Trump's DC hotel that, of course, has now been sold. Uh, and of course, once Trump started running for president saying all the horrible things, Zaria was like, ah, I'm out. So Trump sued Zaria, Zaria counter sued him, and Debra Baum was the lawyer for Zaria who ended up doing a deposition of Donald Trump. And while she did the deposition, she figured out the key to getting Donald Trump to say everything that would basically make him lose his case.

So here is what Ms. Baum told Politico, just let him talk. I got exactly what I wanted by letting him talk. And to be honest, before I continue with her quote, that seems to be what kind of happened yesterday in Donald Trump's fraud trial, right? Like, just let him go. Just let him be Donald Trump. And you know that he is going to dig himself into a giant hole. And that definitely happened on Monday, but bomb continues. 'cause it's not just about, ah, just let him talk. He'll run his mouth and get himself in trouble. There's more to it. Here's what she says. In that particular case, there were some legal issues we were dealing with in terms of the likelihood of the certainty of their losses as a result of the restaurant leaving. And they claimed millions and millions of dollars of lost profits. And there's a legal principle that your damages have to be reasonably certain to recover them.

And a lot of their damages were based on how well they expected the restaurant to do. But he testified to exactly what I wanted, which was quote, with a restaurant. You never know what you're going to get. You never know. So she let him talk long enough because at first he wasn't digging himself into a hole, but you let him go long enough and he'll pick up that shovel and start digging. And then she says, the second key, the man responds really well to flattery. You flatter him, and he's your best friend. She says, you cannot go into a deposition with Donald Trump, or even a line of questioning when he is on the stand. You can't go in there guns blazing, right? You can't be one of those hotshot lawyers that wants to have a gotcha moment. You know, you can't be Tom Cruise from a few good men, okay? You gotta handle it cool. You gotta be smart. You gotta, you

Gotta be his buddy. You gotta tell him, Hey, it's, I love your shirt, man. Hey, you've been super successful in business. I, I think almost any business person in America would be jealous of the success you've had. I know I'm jealous of it. Throw a little bit of flattery out there and you've got him eating from your hand. Now, what's scary about this is that this is not just the legal strategy to get Trump to do whatever you want. This is also, by the way, the same strategy that was employed by dictators around the world to get Donald Trump on their side. Vladimir Putin knew how to do it. Kim Jong-un played Donald Trump for a total chump. You know, the man he had called Dard and then had that meeting with Donald Trump. You know, they're walking, having fun together. Donald Trump's talking to him about all the brilliant real estate opportunities in North Korea.

Uh, dictators and foreign leaders know the same thing that this lawyer Deborah Baum is pointing out. You throw a couple compliments his way, he is gonna be eating out of your hand for the rest of the day. He's going to tell you what you want to know. He's gonna say things that he should not be saying. And all it takes is a little bit of flattery compliment here, compliment there, and you've got him right where you want him.