Jack Smith's Indictment of the Entire Legal Profession

[marmar]

(Slate) The indictment of Donald J. Trump filed by special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday is remarkable in too many ways to count. As Richard Hasen has argued, it may be the most important prosecution for American democracy that the nation has ever seen. And its outcome will inform not just the 2024 election but also the likelihood that future elections will result in the orderly, peaceful transfer of power.

It is for this reason that the singular role of lawyers in this particular indictment should not go unremarked on. All six (apparently unindicted) co-conspirators who are unnamed in the document appear to be attorneys. Several have been subject to state investigations or disciplinary actions for misconduct and misrepresentations around the 2020 election. And some of the most damning lines in the indictment come from other attorneys in Trump’s orbit who steadfastly stood up for the rule of law in the midst of the conspiracy, up to and including the Jan. 6 insurrection. One of the most chilling details of the indictment is an allegation that top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark would have deployed the military to quell protests against Trump’s coup. After White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin told Clark, “There is no option in which you do not leave the White House on Jan. 20,” Clark allegedly responded: “Well … that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act”—a law that would let Trump activate the armed forces against American citizens to achieve his seizure of power.

....(snip)....

Pay attention, because that will be the cohort that determines the future of American democracy. We need to name that camp and understand it, because the right flank of the legal profession has adamantly refused to police itself, and the legal profession as a whole has hardly raced to hold its most destructive and dangerous members to account. Leading players in the Jan. 6 indictment, including Eastman and Clark, were once luminaries of the Federalist Society, a network of conservative lawyers who hoist one another into positions of power. Yet the Federalist Society has consistently refused to denounce their complicity, or revoke their membership, or even condemn the coup itself. Instead, the conservative legal movement has welcomed these men—who have expressed no remorse for their actions—back into the fold. Lawyers on the right appear uninterested in exploring how colleagues who were once deemed most likely to succeed have overnight become most likely to be indicted. Might it be a problem that the movement’s pipeline produced lawyers who fought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power? Might it be a timely exercise in self-scrutiny to try to understand how that transpired?

Anyone who was shocked by the details of Smith’s latest indictment might also be surprised to learn just how much worse it could have been—because rogue lawyers, including movement judges, just barely lost a series of pivotal battles. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, for example, came one vote away from nullifying thousands of ballots, thus overturning Joe Biden’s victory in the state and setting the stage for the Legislature to assign fake electors to Trump. It failed only because a single member of the conservative majority, Justice Brian Hagedorn, refused to go along with his hard-right Trumpist colleagues. We are lucky that Hagedorn was principled enough to reject this plot under immense pressure and criticism from his own party. But the fate of free and fair elections should not rely on sheer luck. (Wisconsin voters this spring elevated the liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz to their state Supreme Court, sending a signal that they generally prefer jurists who do not facilitate coups; Protasiewicz was sworn in on Tuesday, shortly before the indictment was unsealed.) .................(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/08/rudy-giuliani-co-conspirators-jack-smith-indictment.html

[erronis]

1. Excellent article. And thanks to Slate for not putting it behind a paywall.

Points out how our democracy is on a knife edge and way too many lawyers are pushing at it.

For those who have been writing and thinking about the role of lawyers in the Trump years, this exchange is emblematic of how deeply corroded the practice of law and the profession have become. A group of attorneys grew so besotted with Trump and Trumpism that they were willing to work against the law—to break the law—in order to produce false documents, make unsubstantiated public claims, file meritless litigation, and suborn perjury, all in a desperate bid to keep Trump in power.

[Lonestarblue]

2. Membership in The Federalist Society should automatically prevent being nominated for any

federal judge opening, including the SC. They are anti-democratic and too many, as we see with unindicted co-comspirators, are corrupt.

[mopinko]

3. they are all about twisting the law to their ends.

they have zero respect for it.

i do think what they teach in law school is as much about how to get around it as it is instilling reverence for it. but these fuckers are allllll about just fucking rewriting it.

[marybourg]

8. That was definitely not my experience.

[Hortensis]

10. It's not even my experience watching the restored DoJ

serving the people of this nation as intended.

[Bluethroughu]

5. The Federalist Society should be investigated by the DOJ

For Seditious Conspiracy against the United States!

Clarance, Ginny, Amy, Brett, Alito...and THEIR BENEFACTORS!

[onetexan]

6. THIS!!☝️

[Farmer-Rick]

13. Seems to me the Federalist Society is a terrorist organization

Pretending to be pro democracy, while all the time pushing thru as much totalitarian and dictatorial legal theories and lies as possible.

They support a feudal system with Kings (dictators) and Lords (oligarchs who support dictators) in direct violation of the US Constitution. During the Revolutionary War, they would be considered Tories, Royalists or King's Men.

But we would all call them traitors.

[Bluethroughu]

19. Exactly.

[niyad]

4. KNR

[cilla4progress]

7. I am a "para-professional" in the legal profession

under an innovative license where I can practice under my own license (Washongton state).

It's been quite an education interacting with lawyers at this level.

Suffice to say, not all practice their advocacy in accord with the ethical rules!

[Joinfortmill]

9. I am disheartened, but hopeful justice will prevail.

[Hekate]

11. Kick & thanks

[Renaissance Man]

12. The Federalist Society

The weirdest thing about the Federalist Society is that its name would make you think that the group has a respect for federalism and the rule of law. It is anything but that, considering what many of the Federalist Society judges have done on the Supreme Court and lower federal courts to legal precedent.

They've pissed on stare decisis so much since gaining that majority, and the first opportunity that whatever Democratic President (and Democratic Senate Majority) gets, they should replace them with some of the most left-leaning judges to correct the crap that has been coming out of the court.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. The coup attempt is ongoing.

[dobleremolque]

16. Amen to this. The coup attempt is ongoing and not at all behind us. n/t

[maxsolomon]

15. Not a single one of his co-conspirators has been disbarred.

Eastman recently retired to avoid it, IIRC.

[rsdsharp]

17. That was L. Lin Wood.

Eastman recently had a disbarment hearing in California.

[maxsolomon]

18. Ah. Thx

All these treasonous bastards I'd never heard of before November 2020 blend together.