"Donald Trump Hired Me As An Attorney. Please Don’t Support Him For President." Huff Post:

[Stuart G]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-hired-me-as-an-attorneyplease-dont_us_579e52dee4b00e7e269fb30f?section=&

Thomas M. Wells
Attorney and businessman with offices in NJ and Vermont and homes in Vermont , NY and St.Thomas. Active in real estate and non profits.


I like authenticity, especially as compared to survey-tested or heavily spun. I am prepared to let a candidate say something that I don’t completely agree with and still support him or her. I think the need to be politically correct has gone too far. I also think the media often hypes and slants stories to the point of being untruthful. I think a prosperous middle class is the key to the American success story, both economically and politically and that lobbyists have way too much sway. I am very much a pragmatist, so much so that I like compromise, more than I like ideology. I like deals, especially those that are win, win.

So Donald Trump is my candidate, right? He is NOT!''

In 1987, when I was 35 years old and he was 41, Donald Trump hired me to be his attorney on a major northern New Jersey project, a shopping center, which like everything else, was to bear his name, Trump Centre. It was a big deal that he picked me and a high honor for me just a couple of years after I started my law firm, which is now over 30 years old. This was at a time when Trump still built things, having recently finished Trump Tower. ...(further into story, after introduction and explanation)

"Once I got going with my reasons why Donald would not be good for our country, it was hard to stop. I did stop, however, when I hit 20, about 4,000 words from here. Read on if you are interested."...

1. The man lies all the time. ....(then all 20 are then listed with explanations.)
Like the skilled liar he is, he does it with impunity. “I watched in Jersey City, NJ when thousands and thousands of people were cheering as the World Trade Center collapsed.” “The last quarter the gross domestic product was less than zero.” “The number of illegal immigrants in the United States is 30 million, it could be 34 million.” “ The Mexican government forces bad people into our country.” ”The unemployment rate may be as high as 42 percent.”

[missingthebigdog]

1. This guy is going to get sued, and is going to have to deal with the Office of Professional Conduct.

If it is really true that he is an attorney, and that Donald Trump hired him, some of the things he says here are a breach of attorney-client privilege. . . .

[Stuart G]

2. Perhaps, but..

He sure does list a lot of reasons not to vote for him

[Maven]

5. Well technically, if anything, he would be in breach of his duty of confidentiality

not the attorney-client privilege. Attorney-client privilege is an evidentiary privilege held by the client; it allows the client to keep confidential communications with his attorney from being disclosed in a legal proceeding. Contrast that with the duty of confidentiality, which is the ethical duty of attorneys not to disclose confidential communications with clients to third parties generally. Sorry to nit-pick.

That said, after skimming the article, it looks as though the writer is making a lot of observations based on Trump's public statements and behavior, i.e., observations that any person could make, as opposed to disclosing confidential communications that arose during his legal representation of Trump. That wouldn't be a breach of his duty of confidentiality. If the attorney were still representing Trump (or had represented him in an ongoing matter), or if his statements were intended to prejudice Trump in any legal dispute or business transaction, then his article could be construed as a breach of the duty of loyalty. In this case, however, it appears his representation ended a long time ago, and the article is aimed primarily at Trump's political prospects, not his business or legal matters.

[democrattotheend]

16. That was my first thought as well

However, in looking at the article, I don't believe he actually revealed anything privileged. The comment about women wanting the lawyer is probably not privileged because it did not relate to the lawyer's representation of Trump or to any legal matter. Not everything you say to a lawyer is privileged - only statements related to the representation or a legal matter.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Anybody can sue anybody but they won't win against this guy. He didn't leak anything not already

He didn't leak anything not already public. Things that he said not already public do not involve details of deals or advice he gave that is specific to Trump's projects.

Writing about personality and behavior is NOT violating attorney-client privilege.

[63splitwindow]

18. He chose the lesser of two evils, AT WORST. Others here aren't in agreemnt with your assessment

of his actions in the first place.

What is your opinion of the substance of his statement?

[missingthebigdog]

20. We don't know enough to know

We only know what the author of the article claims. We don't know the scope of his representation of Trump. We don't know if Trump consulted him regarding family law issues along with his comments about women wanting him.

We would have to know the scope to know if the information was privileged, so perhaps there is no attorney-client privilege breach. It is likely that there is a confidentiality breach. And there is, I believe, an appearance of impropriety.

Beyond that, though, would you hire an attorney who you knew made public comments like this about his client? The guy could have written this whole thing without referring to the fact that Trump was once his client.

I hate Trump as much (or more) than the next guy, but professionals have a duty to their clients. Things like this harm the legal profession.

[SheriffBob]

23. lawyers

follow the money. Justice is for the rich.

Even Shakespeare hated them.

[prayin4rain]

28. Shakespeare hated lawyers? nt

[lonestarnot]

24. Truth is a defense in any matter.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Mr. Wells likely encountered these difficulties with his client:

1. The risk of his client suing him for malpractice to lower the bill for services rendered,
2. His client not listening to well thought-out legal advice and going rogue, and/or
3. His client putting his law license at risk.

In law school, we are repeatedly warned not to take or keep "difficult" clients. Trump is pure radioactive material.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. Kick for later

[Laxman]

6. I Read This Article This Morning....

and it reminded me that Trump has burned a lot of bridges in the NJ legal community. He's like the neighborhood delinquent. Everybody tries to give him a chance but he keeps breaking into your house to steal your stuff to sell. He's burned so many bridges but there's still always somebody willing to say "maybe it will be different with me".

I actually got to meet Trump, sort of. When I was a young lawyer (actually still a law clerk) I was working for a firm that represented NJ's oldest and largest bank. The partner who's bags I was carrying took me along to a meeting between the bank big wigs and Trump and his entourage when he was looking for financing for his first casino. I sat on the sidelines and watched as the stodgy old bankers listened to Trump's pitch. He was a bit of a celebrity in the NY area by then and he was full of himself.

After his presentation that was incredibly self confident and self centered about how lucky the bank would be to do business with him, everybody smiled and shook hands and Trump and his people left. The bank president then went back to the conference room, closed the door and said "this bank will never do business with that man". A good thing too, because Trump's default on his loans and subsequent bankruptcy on that casino deal would have put that bank that had been in business for over 100 years into receivership.

Nobody knows what a snake Trump is better than the lawyers who have done business with him. Unless maybe it's these people:

[Stuart G]

7. Thank You for your unique perspective on this asshole

also...for the great video..

[Laxman]

8. He's Screwed An Incredible Number.....

of small business people. Contractors I know who have done business with him started building extra costs into their bids to account for slow payment and the likelihood that the final payments would not be made.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Man, Trump is a dick. I mean really a dick!

.


Thanks for posting that.


Hey, Vienna Sausage-fingered man, who is probably reading this. After all, Lawrence O'Donnell says you scan the internet for articles and comments about you, so if you don't see this, one of your stooges will probably see it.

You're a dick, a very small Vienna Sausage dick.


.

[PJMcK]

27. Wait, I like Vienna sausages

Donald Trump is simply a dick.

He's also an idiot.

[SheriffBob]

21. This happens a lot in the building trades

a lot of times.

I was in the buildings trades all my life. It happened to me many times.

The only recourse is to file a lean which takes time and money.

Then you have to wait until the building is being sold by the stiff. Only then do you get what's owed.

There are a lot of stories about contractors scamming people but it's a two way street favoring the consumer.

[wordpix]

10. not to mention all the lies and dirty tricks in Scotland for his golf course

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/02/17/467036682/anti-trump-voices-grow-louder-in-scotland-after-development-rift

snip: The landscape might be a sprawl of green, but Milne says he rarely sees a golfer. He was never a fan of the golf course, which spreads across parts of 4,000-year-old coastal sand dunes designated as a special environmental site.

But that's not why he dislikes Trump. It's because he's a bully, Milne says — and a really bad neighbor.

"They have threatened us at a few stages," he says. "We've had the water lines cut, the power lines cut, the phone lines cut — sometimes accidentally, but not always. He has lied to us, he's lied about us."

Milne says Trump tried to use the Scottish version of eminent domain to force locals to sell their property. And Trump has publicly insulted his neighbors, calling their homes ugly.

Sarah Malone, the executive vice president of Trump's Scottish company, denies trying to force people to sell.

[TryLogic]

11. I have seen and heard a lot of very negative characterizations of Trump. I have yet to encounter one

that I disagree with.

[lindysalsagal]

12. "Bullies will always exist somewhere, but the White House should not be that somewhere."

Damn right.

[lindysalsagal]

13. Best comprehensive list of his idiocy anywhere, from a non-politician

I just saved it in notepad to my desktop. Thanks.

[PatSeg]

14. K&R

[Generic Other]

15. I always think rightwingers are pretty damn dumb

but I did not think they were capable of being this dumb. It is incomprehensible that they picked him as their candidate.

[Skittles]

19. Trump is such a fool

thinks women really want him, not his money

[SheriffBob]

22. ugh

that's revolting. He probably is impotent and/or eats viagra like tic tac.

No offense to bob dole.

[lonestarnot]

25. What money?

[Skittles]

29. the illusion of money seems to be enough for gold diggers

[lonestarnot]

30. So too, the illusion of a purple heart.

[Skittles]

31. omg can you believe this shyte

the correct response from ANY rational person would be to say thank you, I am touched, but I cannot accept this, you EARNED this award.....but this CHICKEN HAWK ASSHOLE accepts it, because it's EASY. It boggles the mind.

[lonestarnot]

33. Makes me puke!

[NewJeffCT]

26. Why do I get the feeling

that after he loses, he'll rant and rave for a while and blame everybody but himself for the loss. That will include Melania and her plagiarism incident at the RNC. Then, in 2017, she will quietly file for divorce... and, in 2018, Trump will marry some 20 something model from eastern Europe.

[Skittles]

32. Melania has to be STEAMING MAD at her husband

it is obvious she did not want to do this......and before all this happened, the illusion was that she was this highly educated, mysterious, beautiful creature. Now we see she was just a gold-digging college dropout/model who snagged herself a rich asshole. I bet the anger from her is helping to fuel his insane ranting.

[SheriffBob]

34. i agree

Trump is a user of women.