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LetMyPeopleVote

(143,999 posts)
Thu Oct 14, 2021, 10:43 AM Oct 2021

Top conservative lawyers steer clear of Trump's latest legal fight

None of the top conservative lawyers want to be associated with TFG. The positions TFG is taking do not pass the blush test and TFG does not pay his bills (ask Rudy)




A number of high-powered lawyers who have represented Donald Trump in the past are sitting out his latest legal battle, as the former President prepares to assert executive privilege to block congressional investigators from getting information on the January 6 insurrection.

That's left Trump with a relatively small legal team without a lot of experience litigating issues of executive privilege as he readies for a court fight that could test major issues of presidential authority.

Some go-to attorneys have been spooked by Trump's reputation for sometimes not paying as a client, according to several people familiar with conservative legal circles. Others watched closely as lawyers fled Trump's prior teams, frustrated by him as a client or facing their own ethical predicaments. Others still want themselves and their firms to stay far away from Trump's insistence that the election was stolen.

"It's not a 10-foot pole" for law firms distancing themselves from Trump, "it's a 1,000-foot pole," said John Yoo, a University of California at Berkeley law professor who held a senior Justice Department position in the George W. Bush administration.

The lawsuit against the NYT and Mary Trump was filed by a lady whose office is in a strip mall. This will be fun to watch
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Top conservative lawyers steer clear of Trump's latest legal fight (Original Post) LetMyPeopleVote Oct 2021 OP
One crank lawyer is as good as the next. Might as well shop for the cheapest ones. Midnight Writer Oct 2021 #1
In this type of litigation you want heavy hitters LetMyPeopleVote Oct 2021 #3
Which crime plot are they avoiding? The DOJ Overturn Plot, or the Stop the Steal Melee? bucolic_frolic Oct 2021 #2

Midnight Writer

(21,546 posts)
1. One crank lawyer is as good as the next. Might as well shop for the cheapest ones.
Thu Oct 14, 2021, 10:48 AM
Oct 2021

The point is not to win a legal case.

The point is to tie up the process with motions, delays, and appeals.

LetMyPeopleVote

(143,999 posts)
3. In this type of litigation you want heavy hitters
Thu Oct 14, 2021, 09:13 PM
Oct 2021

From the CNN article cited in OP

Legal heavyweights needed
A larger, more experienced firm may be needed if the Trump executive privilege fight heads into appeals. Past presidents have used some of the most elite law firms in Washington to help them post-presidency, including the Clintons keeping a decades-long relationship with their private attorney David Kendall at Williams & Connolly and Ronald Reagan turning to Ted Olson, who had high-ranking Justice Department experience, to counsel him when he testified in a 1990 trial related to the Iran-Contra affair.

"You'd want to see a top 10 national law firm with a big, experienced DC office" handling cases that test constitutional issues, such as how much say a former president has over the confidentiality of his records, said Yoo, the former Bush administration Justice official.
"You don't see that here. It's quite glaring."

Post-Watergate-era law allows for former presidents to have some say over what they want to keep protected in their presidential records -- and to litigate what should stay confidential if they choose.

A split has already materialized between what Trump wants and what the Biden White House's position is. Last Friday, Trump's political organization said it believed that more than 40 documents in the hands of the National Archives should stay confidential. The Biden White House, however, didn't oppose the documents going to the House investigation.

That sets up the possibility of a complex and expensive court fight -- where Trump may need to sue if he disagrees with the National Archives' approach to his papers. It's possible that the questions he could raise in court about executive privilege may need to be settled by the Supreme Court, Yoo said.

bucolic_frolic

(42,663 posts)
2. Which crime plot are they avoiding? The DOJ Overturn Plot, or the Stop the Steal Melee?
Thu Oct 14, 2021, 10:58 AM
Oct 2021

Because they were separate bets on two different operations.

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