A couple of weeks ago, Politico published a good piece from Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, who highlighted a key mistake Donald Trump’s lawyers were making during the hush money trial. After noting that the former president appeared pleased with his defense counsel, Khardori explained:

[It’s] clear that Trump’s lawyers are pursuing a flawed and risky strategy. Why? Most likely it’s not them, but him. Trump is the client, and he gets the final word on major decisions. So far as I can tell, this team has managed to stay on Trump’s good side by indulging — perhaps necessarily — his worst traits and instincts. It may be their downfall.

The former prosecutor wasn’t the only one who noticed. TalkingPointsMemo’s Josh Kovensky wrote a similar analysis the week before the verdict was announced, noting “a pattern that emerged throughout” the proceedings, in which Trump’s attorneys “went out of their way to massage his ego, loading questions with praise for their boss or having witnesses testify to how big and successful Trump is.”

Going through transcripts, Kovensky said he identified “dozens of instances in which Trump’s legal team directed their questioning towards eliciting testimony about the greatness of their client.”

National Review’s Andrew McCarthy — a fierce critic of the prosecution in this case — also complained that the defendant pressed his defense counsel to push “the political narrative” he wanted to hear.

It was against this backdrop that Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, made some television appearances in the wake of the jury’s verdict, including a discussion with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins who asked, “Who ultimately was in charge of the defense strategy here? Was it you? Or was it Donald Trump?”

“It was both of us,” Blanche replied.

The defense attorney also appeared on Fox News, repeatedly saying that Trump was “very involved“ and “very much involved“ with every aspect of the defense, including jury selection.

In the same appearance, Blanche added, “[Trump] jokingly said to us a lot that he wanted to be the litigator.”

Sure. “Jokingly.”

The lawyer concluded, “We made every decision together.”

In other words, the former president, facing a felony trial and a potential prison sentence, could’ve allowed his high-priced defense counsel to take the lead in pursuit of an acquittal. Instead, the former television personality, who has no meaningful background in the law or trial procedures, insisted on partnering with his lawyers and playing a direct role in “every decision.”

The result was a legal defense that focused on what Trump wanted to hear, instead of what jurors needed to hear.