Sometimes, clients facing criminal charges think that they know best and that their strategy will win the day. Public figures as diverse as Donald Trump and Sam Bankman-Fried, for example, have believed that “going public” will best bring them a soft landing. Or sometimes, they simply can’t control themselves, although Bankman-Fried’s decision to go public occurred long before a criminal investigation was on the way.

In Trump’s case, whatever he does publicly is not only a political strategy, but a design, as he sees it, to actually help him with his criminal cases—perhaps by not-so-subtly discouraging witnesses and playing to some of the jurors he will face. After all, he only needs one in each case!