NPR

Trump Violating Lawyers' First Rule For Clients: Keep Your Mouth Shut

The president and his advisers are playing into lawyers' worst nightmare: digging their legal case into a deep hole by making remarks outside the courtroom.
President Trump speaks at a rally in Nashville Wednesday. During the speech, he criticized a court that blocked his new travel executive order. And that, lawyers say, could be a problem for him.

Ask any veteran lawyer about her worst fear, and you'll hear this: the client who digs a hole for himself — and then keeps on digging.

The challenge of defending a difficult client is once again in the news this week as the Justice Department has struggled to convince federal judges that President Trump's executive order, imposing limits on travelers from six majority Muslim countries, is not, in fact, a ban on Muslims.

In rulings from Hawaii, Maryland, Washington and beyond, courts have cited Trump's own words as evidence the

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