August 18, 2022

The left is making it impossible for Trump to find a lawyer

By Andrea Widburg

Leftists seem pleased that no lawyers will represent Trump. This is a terrible thing that, as much as anything else, represents the downfall of America under the left’s aegis. The aggressive leftist purge of conservative or just brave attorneys is destroying one of America’s greatest institutions: Every person’s right to have an attorney at his side.

In 1770, Redcoats fired on a crowd that had surrounded them, taunting them and pelting them with dangerous projectiles. Five colonists died. The British soldiers claimed self-defense, but the patriots in Boston called it murder. We remember it as the Boston Massacre.

What too few Americans know is that the soldiers, despite a trial in hostile territory, got a stellar defense. Their attorney was John Adams. He knew that representing the soldiers was a risk that could destroy his

law practice and impoverish his family, but he also understood something very important about the law in a free country: No one should have to stand alone against the awesome majesty of the state, which has the power of the police, the prosecution, the judge, and the executioner.

Image: Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Thanks to Adams’s principled defense, all the soldiers were acquitted of murder. His closing argument included a sentence that should be carved above the entrance to every courthouse and media outlet: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

These principles were incorporated into the Sixth Amendment which states, in relevant part that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right...to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

Except, it seems, if the accused is Donald Trump. A right extended even to British soldiers accused of murder in the lead-up to the American Revolution is denied to a former president of the United States. The WaPo wrote about Trump’s troubles:

Former president Donald Trump and close aides have spent the eight days since the FBI searched his Florida home rushing to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers. But the answer they keep hearing is “no.”

[snip]

“Everyone is saying no,” said a prominent Republican lawyer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.

The article blames Trump for a history of being a difficult client who has a “reputation for stiffing vendors and ignoring advice.”

Well, maybe. But maybe Trump’s troubles have to do with what’s happening to anyone who works for him or embraces his cause. The DOJ has aggressively gone after Trump’s lawyers (Rudy Giuliani, Eric Herschmann, Pat Cippolini, Igor Fruman, John Eastman, etc.), as well as anyone close to those lawyers (e.g., Victoria Toensing). They’ve also gone after Steve Bannon’s lawyer, Bob Costello.

It’s not just attorneys in Trump’s immediate orbit who are at risk. In Minnesota, three attorneys sued their former firm because of their firm’s anti-Trump animus. They were fired because they protested the managing partner’s decision to fire another colleague who had dared express pro-Trump views on social media after January 6.

Taking on causes the left dislikes is also risky. The two attorneys who successfully argued the Bruen case, opening the way to legal concealed carry across America, promptly got fired from their law firm. Kyle Rittenhouse’s attorney received death threats. And Derek Chauvin, who had the misfortune to be called after ex-felon George Floyd passed a fake $20, while filled to the brim with illegal drugs, cannot appeal because he is broke and has no lawyer, which implies that even legal aid societies won’t help him.

Leftists and NeverTrumpers have set up an entire organization—The 65 Project—dedicated to destroying the career of every attorney pointing out massive election irregularities in 2020. The standard is clear: Leftists can attack with impunity presidential elections in which Republicans win; no one may ever attack a claimed Democrat election victory.

The 65 Project boasts about its efforts against Eastman, lawyers in Georgia, seven lawyers in Pennsylvania, Ted Cruz, Sidney Powell, Cleta Mitchell, and more—more than 100 more. All these efforts are helped by the fact that the right to practice law across America is controlled by state monopolies known as “bar associations.” In many states, these have been seized by hard-leftists and are, therefore, ideologically corrupt and willing to disbar politically disfavored attorneys.

What’s happening here is troubling. As John Adams knew, every person, even a guilty person, needs a friend in the court who will help him when the all-mighty government comes calling. A good lawyer may find himself defending unpopular people or causes, but that comes with the territory in a free country.

Leftists want to destroy this important right. When they’re done, we will all be at the mercy of a government that can abandon due process entirely because hapless defendants will be helpless to assert it. The same government can also do anything it damn well pleases because no lawyers will be there to challenge its illegalities and excesses.