Vulnerable: Donald Trump's legal woes mount without protection of presidency

File: Pro-Trump protesters scale a wall as they storm the US Capitol Building, during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results by the US Congress, in Washington, January 6, 2021. [Reuters]

Between Dearie's position, and the appeals court ruling, "I think that basically there may be a developing consensus, if not an already developed consensus, that the government has the stronger position in a lot of these issues and a lot of these controversies," said Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor.

To be sure, Trump is hardly a stranger to courtroom dramas, having been deposed in numerous lawsuits throughout his decades-long business career, and he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to survive situations that seemed dire.

No longer enjoys the legal shield of the presidency

His lawyers did not immediately respond Thursday to a request seeking comment.

In the White House, Trump faced a perilous investigation into whether he had obstructed a Justice Department probe of possible collusion between Russia and his 2016 campaign.

Ultimately, he was protected at least in part by the power of the presidency, with special counsel Robert Mueller citing longstanding department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president.

He was twice impeached by a Democratic-led House of Representatives - once over a phone call with Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the second time over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol - but was acquitted by the Senate on both occasions thanks to political support from fellow Republicans.

It remains unclear if any of the current investigations - the Mar-a-Lago one or probes related to Jan. 6 or Georgia election interference - will produce criminal charges. And the New York lawsuit is a civil matter.

But there's no question Trump no longer enjoys the legal shield of the presidency, even though he has repeatedly leaned on an expansive view of executive power to defend his retention of records the government says are not his, no matter their classification.

Notably, the Justice Department and the federal appeals court have paid little heed to his assertions that the records had been declassified.

For all his claims on TV and social media, both have noted that Trump has presented no information to support the idea that he took any steps to declassify the records.

The appeals court called the declassification question a "red herring" because even declassifying a record would not change its content or transform it from a government document into a personal one. And the statutes the Justice Department cites as the basis of its investigation do not explicitly mention classified information.

Trump's lawyers also have stopped short of saying in court, or in legal briefs, that the records were declassified. They told Dearie they shouldn't be forced to disclose their stance on that issue now because it could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment.

Lack of a coherent and consistent position

Even some legal experts who have otherwise sided with Trump in his legal fights are dubious of his assertions.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who testified as a Republican witness in the first impeachment proceedings in 2019, said he was struck by the "lack of a coherent and consistent position from the former president on the classified documents."

"It's not clear," he added, "what Jedi-like lawyers said that you could declassify things with a thought, but the courts are unlikely to embrace that claim."