From [HERE] If Kwame Kilpatrick thought he was setting himself up for his long promised comeback by asking for a new lawyer, he may want to rethink his strategy, legal experts said Tuesday.

If he was looking for a delay in his upcoming public corruption trial, that didn't work. And if he was looking for grounds for appeal should he be convicted, that likely won't work either, the experts said, weighing in on the news that the former Detroit mayor lost his request for a new lawyer. Kilpatrick asked for new counsel Tuesday, saying he no longer trusts his longtime attorney James Thomas because of a conflict of interest that he recently discovered. Thomas also asked to be removed from the case.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied the request, a decision Thomas said could trigger an appeal down the road. Kilpatrick could claim ineffective counsel, but legal experts predict it won't work -- especially given Thomas' lengthy history with Kilpatrick. "It's a lawyer that he had for five years that he did want," said Arkansas attorney John Wesley Hall, who wrote a book on ethics and responsibilities of criminal-defense lawyers.