“I have practiced criminal law for over 20 years, and I have tried and won cases as both a federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. I've almost never seen the defense win without a compelling counternarrative. Jurors often want to side with prosecutors, who have the advantage of writing the indictment, marshaling the witnesses and telling the story. The defense needs its own story, and in my experience, the side that tells the simpler story at trial usually wins.

”Instead of telling a simple story, Mr. Trump's defense was a haphazard cacophony of denials and personal attacks. That may work for a Trump rally or a segment on Fox News, but it doesn't work in a courtroom."

-- former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, now a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Chicago, in a New York Times Op-Ed

About 10 years ago I interviewed class action attorney Steve Berman who initially flummoxed me by giving 10-second answers (rather than 10-minute answers) to every question. But that's his philosophy: KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The Stupid in this case was Donald Trump.