Donald Trump, long obsessed with his public image, is intensifying his efforts to enter the Presidency this month without a criminal record. His lawyers moved on three legal fronts Monday and opened another today, seeking to prevent further damaging government actions against him.

The first of those efforts occurred on the day that a joint session of Congress formally counted the votes that confirmed his election victory in November. Only his oath-taking remains, on January 20. The day also marked the fourth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol by mob violence in 2021 as Trump sought to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to President Biden. Further court filings have come today.

The symbolism on Monday was epic, perhaps exceeding the fertile imagination of a Hollywood image-polisher. Lawmakers had to brave a snowstorm to get there. Congress, deeply divided by rancorous partisanship, engaged in dueling rounds of applause as the votes were announced. Vice President Kamela Harris, presiding over the count of her own defeat at the polls, led the half-hour ritual calmly and even with a few smiles. Above the Capitol building, the American flag flew at half-staff, the ongoing tribute marking the death of one of Trump’s most decent and kindest predecessors, Jimmy Carter. Trump continued to protest online about that tribute supposedly interfering with the events of his return to power.

Meanwhile, his legal team took these actions on Monday:

1. They filed an appeal in a state court in New York, seeking to block a trial judge in Manhattan from imposing, on Friday of this week, a sentence for Trump’s conviction by a jury on 34 criminal counts arising out of events in Trump’s initial, successful presidential campaign in 2016.
2. His attorneys, in a 12-page letter bristling with complaints and accusations against the special prosecution team led by Jack Smith, demanded that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland dismiss Smith immediately and bar Smith from issuing any final report summing up the now-closed criminal investigation of Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol uprising.

3. Those attorneys made the same request to ban that report in a 25-page motion to Florida federal judge Aileen M. Cannon, who has ruled favorably to Trump in Smith’s criminal case over mishandling of highly-secret government documents by Trump after he left office in 2021. Cannon was asked to hold an immediate hearing, and to rule by Friday of this week.

The flurry of legal activity by the Trump team continued on Tuesday morning. They sought, and were granted, a hearing today in their New York appeal seeking to stop his sentencing on Friday. They asked the federal appeals court that is currently considering an appeal in the Florida documents case to act by Friday to block the release of any final report by Smith as long as that case is under review – the same plea they had made to Judge Cannon. Smith planned to file his response in Judge Cannon’s court today. Judge Cannon at midday today temporarily blocked release of any Smith report pending action by the appeals court.

Most of this activity yesterday and today was done to benefit Trump by avoiding further disclosures that he considers harmful but also to benefit two of his employees at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, who are facing criminal charges in the documents case: Waltine Nauta and Carlos DeOliveira. While Jack Smith has ended his case in Florida against Trump, the case against Nauta and DeOlieira is currently on hold but prosecutors plan to move it forward when they are allowed to do so. The filings yesterday and today argue that any release of Smith’s final report will deny a fair trial to those two individuals.

Trump, on his own, asked permission today to join in the emergency activity in Judge Cannon’s court.

Much of the legal arguments being made by Trump’s lawyers in the Florida documents case grows out of decision last July 15 by Judge Cannon, who holds court in West Palm Beach. In that ruling, she dismissed all charges against Trump and his two Mar-a-Lago employees, declaring that Smith’s appointment to investigate that case was unconstitutional and that Smith did not have any legal authority to use federal Justice Department funds to pay for his work. That has been appealed by Smith’s team to a federal appeals court, although the team has dropped Trump from the case but seeks to go ahead with the case against the two employees.

NOTE TO READERS: The events described here are developing rapidly, so there are likely to be other court actions later today.