Whenever a potential new client calls me saying he or she needs a new lawyer, I’m always on the lookout for some red flags:
he says his last lawyer “didn’t fight hard enough” for him.
he disregards your law degree and years of experience because he saw a Matlock rerun the other day, so he wants to direct the case and just use you as a ventriloquist’s dummy.
he’s really, really evasive when you start talking about retainers and fees.
If reporting this past weekend is any indication, the former President of the United States checks all of these boxes, plus several I hadn’t thought of before:
Former President Donald Trump's five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy.
It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team.
Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.
No other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump's impeachment defense.
A person familiar with the departures told CNN that Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he's left office. Trump was not receptive to the discussions about how they should proceed in that regard.
The attorneys had not yet been paid any advance fees and a letter of intent was never signed.
I really hadn’t been paying much attention to the upcoming impeachment trial because the result of a foregone conclusion. With a handful of noble but doomed exceptions like Mitt Romney, no Republican Senators will vote to convict regardless of the evidence presented at trial. But now? There’s some real train-wreck potential here, so I’m suddenly watching it with interest.
It appears that a couple of lawyers have put themselves forward as cannon fodder:
Just to be clear, I wouldn’t take on a straightforward divorce hearing with less than two weeks to prepare, much less a Presidential impeachment trial. We’ll see how long Castor and Schoen last. If they bail out, we could be treated to Giuliani or Lin Wood ranting and raving before the Senate. Heck, Trump might decide to represent himself, seeing as how he knows more about the law than everyone else anyway.
I have never wanted anything in my life as I much as I want to see Donald Trump acting as his own lawyer in a trial.
If his lawyers stick around, will Trump give evidence at the trial? I can’t help wondering about it. With his Twitter and Facebook accounts taken away, it must be killing Trump that he’s unable to broadcast his very important thoughts to the entire world whenever he wants. And we know he thinks he’s smart enough to talk his way out of any jam. Would he really pass up one more chance to get the entire world’s attention?
Speaking of lawyers, The Lincoln Project is threatening to sue Rudy Giuliani for defamation, and their lawyer’s letter is…something:
Your unfortunate, self-inflicted decline has been a public spectacle. You wanted to “lock her up.” You panhandled foreign interests. You defended porn-star payoffs in eye-popping media appearances. You revealed sleazy schemes in butt-dialed voicemails. You gave a mattress-top interview to someone you thought was a journalist “looking for more,” but turned out only to be a comedian who showed you to be an easy mark. You represented the President of the United States in a parking lot press conference held right outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping, Fantasy Island Adult Bookstore, and Philadelphia Crematorium. You oozed hair dye while you spewed lies about the 2020 election. You assembled and led an “Elite Strike Force” legal team that somehow couldn’t manage to spell or to win in court.
[…]
More important than any of that, though, you betrayed your country when you rose to speak on January 6, 2021 before a raucous crowd that your client, ex-President Donald Trump, had invited to gather a short distance from the U.S. Capitol. You promoted bogus conspiracy theories. You said the presidency had been “stolen.” You advocated an extra-constitutional effort to overturn the obvious result of a free and fair election. You denigrated the established legal process for counting certified votes that would begin just moments later in a joint session of Congress. You directed people to “fight to the very end” to make sure that same process “doesn’t happen.” You shouted “Let’s have trial by combat!”
You told your zealots what to do. They listened. They vandalized. They terrorized. They injured. They killed.
You are responsible for an armed occupation of the U.S. Capitol and an insurrection against the United States. You are responsible for our nation’s first non-peaceful transfer of power since the Civil War. You are responsible for 140 injured Capitol Police. You are responsible for five dead Americans. You incited a riot on January 6th and then stood back to watch. Your immediate reaction to the dreadful scene that day was to phone fleeing Senators to request that they further extend the vote-counting delay that you helped manufacture, which is a treacherous act the public knows about only because you cannot properly operate a smartphone.
The actual letter includes footnotes. Footnotes.
The consensus on social media is that Rick Wilson actually wrote this, and that the lawyers on whose letterhead it appears cleaned it up a little before sending it out. It certainly matches Wilson’s writing style. And, as a column or online blog post, it is pretty devastating.
As a letter from a lawyer, it’s frankly embarrassing, unprofessional and not meant to win any retraction or apology from Giuliani. I have no problem with them suing him - not that I think they’ll collect anything even if they win - but this letter is not meant to advance the cause of justice in any way beyond getting retweets. It’s playing to the cheap seats at a time when the American legal system is already hyper-partisan, extremely polarized, and swamped with online misinformation, unhinged rhetoric and explicit threats.
Given their past history with lawyers, it’s not really that surprising.
In any event, The Lincoln Project may need its lawyers to work on something more pressing before too long:
I’m pretty sure I retweeted this guy several times leading up to and during the Trump Administration. You just never know what that person you follow on social media is hiding from the world.
Jeremiah Jeffries, San Francisco School Board committee chairman, explaining why the board didn’t consult with any historians before voting to change the names of schools named after Abraham Lincoln and other historical figures:
What would be the point? History is written and documented pretty well across the board. And so, we don’t need to belabor history in that regard. We’re not debating that. There’s no point in debating history in that regard. Either it happened or it didn’t, as historians have referenced in their own histories. So, I don’t think there’s a discussion about that. And so, based on our criteria, it’s a very straightforward conversation. And so, no need to bring historians forward to say – they either pontificate and list a bunch of reasons why, or [say] they had great qualities. Neither are necessary in this discussion.
Insane Clown Posse, “Miracles”:
Water, fire, air, and dirt
Fucking magnets, how do they work?
And I don't wanna talk to a scientist
Y'all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed
Same energy.
I would enjoy seeing Trump represent himself almost as much as I enjoyed my ex representing himself over two decades ago after his lawyer quit for similar, although much more down-to-earth reasons.
Persons who live on deluding themselves are hard to beat for dramatic effect, but drama doesn't matter in a court of law. Facts do.