After the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, August 8, Fox News and many other right-wing media outlets were quick to leap to former President Donald Trump's defense — describing the search as government overreach and essentially telling their audience: If the FBI can go after Trump, you're next. Attorney Philip Rotner, in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on August 12, describes this type of messaging as "the O.J. Simpson defense."
Although The Bulwark itself is a right-leaning media outlet, the website is overtly anti-Trump and features a who's-who of well-known Never Trump conservatives, including Charlie Sykes, Bill Kristol, Mona Charen, Tim Miller and Amanda Carpenter. The Bulwark has become the go-to website for anti-Trump coverage from the right. And when Rotner describes Trump, his supporters and his allies as invoking the "O.J. Simpson defense," he certainly doesn't mean it in a positive way.
