I’m afraid of the answer to this, but why it is obvious that Blanche has to leave his law firm in order to represent an unpopular client? If it is indeed because the defendant is extremely unpopular, that seems to me a bigger problem than a few defendents being above the law.
When John Adams agreed to represent British soldiers accused of perpertrating the Boston Massacre, did his have to leave his law firm? Maybe he was wise enough to be a solo practioner.
Because it’s a business and they can decide which clients they want to take on. The partners all get to vote. Taking on Trump would probably lose them a lot of clients up to the point of destroying the business.
The article said that even if he was found guilty on all 34, since he hadn’t been convicted prior to this set of charges, the standard thing would be no jail time.
I think the principle that you don’t get a bad lawyer because you are unpopular is fundamental in a free society (or even a very partially free one, such as Massachusetts under British colonialism).
So, if unpopoular-defenant is the obvious reason Blanche left, the firm’s remaining employees – I mean the high paid ones who should be able to afford it – should quit as well.
I realize that others think not having certain people above the law is more fundamental. I may not have a rational argument for thinking the above the law thing is some combination of inevitable and unimportant. I care about unjust convictions far more than unjust acquittals. O.J. getting off didn’t bother me either – catching murderers is important, but not important enough have possible innocents convicted.
Israel is so different from the U.S., but I wonder if the Bibi Natanyahu precedent has any relevance for the U.S. Moderates, unwilling to serve with a man under indictment, are no longer in Israel’s governemnt, pushing it further right. And, in the end, Bibi, who I do suspect is seriously guilty, as shown by living above his legitimate income, will probably wind up sentenced to community service. Such a conviction will not have been worth it. We’ll see if Trump even gets sentenced to community service, let alone jail time. Doubt it.
Donald Trump is entitled to a vigorous defense, and private law firms are entitled to choose their clients. There is absolutely no friction here.
I mean, c’mon, it’s not like he can’t get a lawyer because he’s unpopular. He’s not a weird kid standing against the wall at the school dance. He can’t get a lawyer because he refuses to pay his bills, because he forces his representation into untenable positions, because he lies to them about what he has and hasn’t done, because he’s incredibly likely to turn around and attack his allies/employees/representation the moment he thinks it’s a ‘powerful’ move.
He can’t get a decent lawyer because he’s a shit client. The fact that he’s absolute poison to everyone who associates with him is almost secondary.
For the most part, the defendants in this country who can’t get good representation are poor people who are forced to rely on chronically understaffed public defender offices. Making a stand for the integrity of the system because the treasonous traitorous treacherous billionaire is having trouble keeping his massive legal team staffed with top talent is a little skewed.
The system is absolutely fucked up, but not to Trump’s detriment. Not to the detriment of any rich white guy in America.
I’m fairly certain that nobody in colonial Massachusetts was a member of a law firm, but I could be wrong.
This CNN video about Trump’s legal team, past and present, is hilarious! The short version is that it’s rife with incredible infighting and lawsuits and lawyers needing their own lawyers; in a nutshell, they are a disreputable pack of bums, and at least two of them have done prison time. I also greatly enjoyed the fact that Tacopina declared himself the lead attorney in this case, and then out of the blue Trump hires Todd Blanche who declares that no, he is the lead attorney, whereupon Tacopina declares that there is no lead attorney and they’re all one big happy family. The whole sordid mess is remarkably reminiscent of Trump’s sordid presidency.