Trump hires attorney for Russia investigation WHO DEFENDED HIM IN THE TRUMP UNIVERSITY CASE! BWAHAHA

[Miles Archer]

Per Lawrence O'Donnell.

An attorney with NO EXPERIENCE in dealing with government.

They guy who defended him in the Trump U case.

MAGA!

[Xipe Totec]

1. Better call Saul, Trump.

[LeftInTX]

11. You took the words right out of my mouth!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. This would be consistent with SCROTUS' tendency to hire people

for their connections to him and not for their competence and experience. Considering this guy's track record - he lost both the Trump U case and the libel case where he sued the guy who wrote a book saying SCROTUS isn't nearly as rich as he claims - Agent Orange's legal goose might be well and truly cooked.

[elleng]

3. and lost his 'defamation' suit against ?WaPo?

that said he was 'only' a 'millionaire,' NOT a billionaire. He failed to prove his case.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. "Trump Nation" by Timothy O'Brien.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/donald-trump-loses-libel-lawsuit-232923

[madaboutharry]

4. Trump hiring his NY attorney

is consistent with his ability to only trust a small group of people he sees as loyalists.

He will do this even if it means someone is not qualified or doesn't have the necessary experience to do the job.

[Demtexan]

6. Good lawyers are expensive.

Now is not the time to go cheap.

[malaise]

7. From the same firm as Joe Lieberman

[gratuitous]

8. Hiring a litigation defense attorney for a government ethics case?

Dumb. The attorney agreeing to take the case? Even dumber. The attorney is sailing into a very specialized area of law, one that requires years if not decades of experience.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. You've made the most important point.

I know a tiny bit about law, having been a paralegal for a brief time. Among the things I learned was that the law is a huge enterprise, and no one knows more than a tiny fraction. In a relatively small town the small town lawyer can handle everything that comes up, criminal, civil, whatever. But in the larger arena, specific expertise matters a whole lot.

With Trump's hiring of this guy, we're also getting another insight into Donald's narrow understanding of the world. He thinks everything is just like the world of New York real estate, which he thinks he understands quite well. I don't know if he does or not, because I know essentially nothing about that world, but what I do know is that Trump's understanding of it has the same limitations that far too many New Yorkers have about the world outside of NYC. They honestly think that everything that matters in any way shape and form can be gotten in NYC. They honestly haven't a clue that anything of value can possibly exist outside the city. And while NYC is wonderful in many ways -- I've visited less often than I'd like and have loved it every time -- because most of my life has been spent elsewhere, I have a firm grip on the reality that NYC is NOT the center of the known Universe.

And so, back to my original point. Donald Trump thinks that the sun rises and sets on NYC and that nothing else matters. So one question I have is this: aside form organizing golf courses, what sort of travelling outside of NYC has he ever done? Clearly, his travel has always been well within the bubble of Trump, Inc. He's never hailed a cab on his own in some other city, let alone having taken the subway or a bus elsewhere. He's never ordered a hamburger anonymously at some hole-in-the-wall in West Podunk. And so he's totally cut off from the experiences of real people, and hasn't a clue that he's cut off.

Of course, that isolation applies to those in Congress, which is at least in part why they are so enthusiastic about cutting off health care to the riff-raff.

[mopinko]

24. yeah, that is what struck me. lawyers who take cases that are so outside

their experience should be disbarred. it's malpractice, imho.

[Glimmer of Hope]

9. He really needs someone from a top tier law firm like Gorelick.

Oh well.

[Demtexan]

15. Trump knows everything.

He should have the best lawyer but he is going for cheap.

Who would want to be his lawyer.

[jberryhill]

10. I know guys like that

I do very specialized work that I'm pretty good at doing.

Every now and then, I have a client who thinks that being good at one thing means I can handle everything from divorce to criminal defense.

We know Trump is a walking example of Dunning Kruger.

One of the things that follows from not being able to recognize one'a own incompetence, is that one cannot recognize what actual expertise in others looks like. He thinks that guy is a really good lawyer, so it means he's a really good lawyer.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. How good a lawyer is he, really, considering he lost the Trump U case

and the O'Brien libel case? Dolt 45 values only personal connections, not expertise - this is obvious from his cabinet appointments. So he hires the lawyer who's probably been sucking up to him for years (maybe Trump has actually been paying him and he wants to keep his business), and the guy is a specialist in civil litigation who probably has never represented a client in any kind of criminal case, let alone something that could result in impeachment with the hazard of subsequent prosecution. The criminal charges could be as bad as espionage and obstruction of justice, not to mention the possible underlying crimes of money laundering, tax evasion, and maybe RICO violations. Trump doesn't need a civil litigator; he needs someone who knows his way around both federal criminal procedure and the procedures for impeachment.

But it's actually OK with me if Trump's lawyer can't handle the job.

[jberryhill]

16. I have no idea

The Trump U case was settled, not lost, but you really can't judge if someone is a good lawyer or not by the outcome of a case that was a loser to begin with. I mean, if your client is being sued, and doesn't have much chance of winning, what do you think a lawyer is supposed to do? Walk away? Use magic Jedi powers to get the client to agree to a reasonable settlement?

There are times when your client won't win, and won't settle. I'm puzzled by what folks think a "good lawyer" does in that extremely common situation. For every case that goes to a decision, one side wins and one side loses. That does not mean that 50% of lawyers are not good lawyers.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Oh, I know.

I was a litigator and appellate lawyer for about 15 years before going into another line of work, so I've got that t-shirt. You can lose cases for all kinds of reasons. But I suspect Trump tells his lawyers to shit and they ask him what color.

Lawyer: This isn't a very good case. I don't think you should sue. It really isn't defamatory if someone says you're a millionaire.
Trump: Do it. I'm a billionaire. He can't say I'm a millionaire and get away with it.
Lawyer: But...
Trump: Just do it. And you'd better win. And ask for $5 billion in damages.
Lawyer: But we can't prove you're a billionaire.
Trump: I feel like a billionaire, so of course I am. And after I win the $5 billion I can prove I'm a billionaire.
Lawyer: (sigh)

[mulsh]

12. Holy Joe is at Kazowitz, so there's that going for them

[link:http://www.kasowitz.com/joseph-i-lieberman/|

[dalton99a]

13. His expertise is bullying fraud victims

[rainbow4321]

19. Back when he sent a lawyer to Nevada courts

To protest something or other around election time...oh..I know know..to argue that a polling place stayed open too long...he sent a damn lawyer who specializes in CONSTRUCTION.

At least he's consistent in lawyer picking.

I had read somewhere that he tried to call D.C. law firms but none of them wanted to touch him or his situation with a 10 foot pole. Of course not...THEY know he is fucked and don't want their firms involved.

[Kber]

20. Maybe the top firms turned him down?

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Trump was also considering Ted Olson (Bush v Gore)

Why Olson may not have been hired:

1. Trump doesn't know him, hence, doesn't trust him.
2. Olson may not have wanted to work with Trump under the latter's conditions, making representation near impossible, let alone successful.
3. Olson may have found enough incriminating evidence against Trump that Trump, as a client, would be problematic.
4. Trump wouldn't pay the $100,000 retainer fee.

[Yonnie3]

22. To tRump this makes sense.

He wants to delay, delay, delay and then settle out of court. That's what this lawyer has done for him in the past.

Perhaps as a settlement he could resign and give a billion dollars to the United States Treasury. Of course, he wins because he didn't admit to wrong doing. Another win for him, is that this would prove he was a billionaire.

Are you listening, Donnie? Go for it.

[NightWatcher]

23. How does he think he's going to settle the Impeachment?