TODD BLANCHE IS A SURPRISINGLY COMPETENT LAWYER. AND HE'S ON TRACK TO KEEP HIS CLIENT OUT OF JAIL UNTIL THE ELECTION. IN DEFENSE OF TRUMP

TODD BLANCHE WAS looking for his man. Or it could be a woman, but probably not.

- ANDREW RICE

For a criminal-defense attorney, picking a jury is about profiling: an intuitive art. And so, on the second day of the most important trial of his life-and maybe of American political history-Blanche was looking for clues in demography, finding meaning in posture, flinches, intonation, and pregnant pauses.

There was so much to distract him from his task, starting with the demanding defendant sitting to his left and the hue and cry that surrounds his traveling courthouse circus. Difficult as it was, Blanche had to tune out the noise and home in on the signals emanating from 18 citizens sitting in a jury box to size up whether any of them might be the one.

When Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, joined Donald Trump's defense team about a year ago, it was widely assumed that the former president's prospects were, both politically and legally, hopeless. Instead, Trump has survived-and, at least in the short term, benefited from-his legal struggles. Outside court, he has used his claims of persecution to rally Republicans. Within the legal system, he is now on the verge of escape thanks to a combination of lucky breaks, errors by his adversaries, a favorable tilt in the Supreme Court, and the effectiveness of Blanche and a group of other quietly adept criminal lawyers. Even as Trump smashes away at a "broken" justice system, Blanche-who is handling three of Trump's four criminal cases-has tried to turn that system's processes to his advantage, litigating, appealing, and otherwise gumming up the works until November. The success of the clock-chewing strategy has been maddening to Trump's opponents, who are desperate to see him held accountable for something.