Why Donald Trump Cannot Get a Top-Tier Lawyer

Why Donald Trump Cannot Get a Top-Tier Lawyer. By Alan Dershowitz.

Former President Donald Trump has now been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. He was represented by two lawyers, neither of whom he apparently wants to lead his defense at trial. He has been interviewing Florida lawyers, and several top ones have declined. I know, because I have spoken to them. There are disturbing suggestions that among the reasons lawyers are declining the case is because they fear legal and career reprisals.

There is a nefarious group that calls itself The 65 Project that has as its goal to intimidate lawyers into not representing Trump or anyone associated with him.

 

 

They have threatened to file bar charges against any such lawyers. When these threats first emerged, I wrote an op-ed offering to defend pro bono any lawyers that The 65 Project goes after. So The 65 Project immediately went after me, and contrived a charge based on a case in which I was a constitutional consultant, but designed to send a message to potential Trump lawyers: if you defend Trump or anyone associated with him, we will target you and find something to charge you with. The lawyers to whom I spoke are fully aware of this threat — and they are taking it seriously. …

The threats to the lawyers are greater than at any time since McCarthyism. Nor is the comparison to McCarthyism a stretch. I recall during the 1950s how civil liberties lawyers, many of whom despised communism, were cancelled, and attacked if they dared to represent people accused of being communists. Even civil liberties organizations stayed away from such cases, for fear that it would affect their fundraising and general standing in the community.

It may even be worse today, as I can attest from my own personal experiences, having defended Trump against an unconstitutional impeachment in 2020. I was cancelled by my local library, community center and synagogue. Old friends refused to speak to me and threatened others who did. My wife, who disagreed with my decision to defend Trump, was also ostracized. There were physical threats to my safety.

Glenn Reynolds:

Sounds like a conspiracy to deprive people of their civil rights.

Obviously, this is the way the affairs of a great nation should be managed.  Seriously though, the assumptions of a liberal, fair society have broken down under the strain of class warfare.

The upper and upper middle class are no longer split into two competing factions, which switch power back and forth between them under guidance from elections. Don’t get nostalgic, but that is over (for now).

Currently the upper factions have coalesced into one (the uniparty), and govern in their own interests against the lower and lower middle classes. They have no incentive or intention to be fair.