Wreck-It Rudy

I’m using a little creative license here because Donald Trump is not paying legal fees for people called to testify before the January 6 Committee investigating his coup attempt. Hell, Donald Trump doesn’t pay for his own lawyers. Ask Rudy.

Donald Trump is not paying for witnesses’ lawyers, but his political action committee and goon allies are paying for the legal representation of over a dozen individuals called to testify. Several witnesses have received promises that their legal fees will be taken care of.

It’s not illegal for Trump, his friends, or his super PAC to pay for anyone’s legal fees. However, lawyers are supposed to represent the interest of their clients, not the person or organization footing the bill. Since lawyers associated with Trump from Bill Barr to Rudy Giuliani have a history of being goons, their loyalty is questioned. It’s hard to believe that a guy who demands loyalty from everyone associated with him wouldn’t expect loyalty from someone he’s paying.

According to financial disclosures, in May alone, Trump’s “Save America” super PAC paid about $200,000 to law firms. The payments include $75,000 to JPRowley Law, which represents Cleta Mitchell, a pro-Trump lawyer who has filed suit to try to block the committee’s subpoena, and $50,000 to Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin & White, which has represented white nationalist Trump goon Steve Bannon, who refused to meet with the panel and has been charged with criminal contempt. The super PAC has also paid legal fees for Trump’s racist immigration guru Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller.

More than a dozen witnesses have also received free legal advice and had attorney’s fees paid for by the American Conservative Union’s “First Amendment Fund,” which consults with Trump’s team about whose fees to cover. Do you believe they’ll pay a legal bill for someone who testifies that Trump got the giggles when he heard the “hang Mike Pence” chants?

Matt Whitaker, who was illegally interim Attorney General between Jeff Sessions and William Barr because he was never confirmed by the Senate, is on the board of one of the Trump PACs and is “counseling” and “giving advice” to witnesses.

Since there are so many conservatives who want to pay the legal fees of terrorists, al-Qaida should seriously consider starting a super PAC.

Now we learn that Cassidy Hutchinson, the former assistant to Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, fired a lawyer that Trump allies recommended to her. We don’t know if this is the reason she testified before the committee last week where she revealed such titillating details like Trump throwing a ketchup-laced temper tantrum, physically attacking his Secret Service detail in order to go to the Capitol on Insurrection Day, and that he wanted security to allow his armed supporters to proceed to the Capitol. Would a lawyer paid by people in Trump World support her giving testimony damaging to Trump?

Donald Trump is claiming Hutchinson’s new lawyer could have prompted her to make false statements and he “truthed” out, “Her story totally changed!” It probably changed from the story his lawyer told her to give.

Hutchinson told the committee she was among the witnesses who have been contacted by Trump goons suggesting they would be better off if they remained loyal to Trump. Some witnesses have been told that Trump knows they’re loyal and he’s watching them.

Trump has a history of witness tampering. During the Mueller investigation of his collusion with Russia and Putin, he would tweet out hints of pardons for people refusing to cooperate with the investigation. Trump goons Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone did not cooperate and all received presidential pardons from Trump.

Promising to eventually pay for a witness’s legal fees sounds like a promise to pay dependent upon what the witness says. That would be witness tampering. Gosh, would a lawyer in Trump’s orbit be involved in some lying shady-ass fascist bullshit? Have you seen Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell?

Sidney Powell was Michael Flynn’s lawyer when he got the pardon…and then she joined the Trump team trying to overturn the election. If that’s not a conflict of interest then I don’t know what is. Her client Michael Flynn literally advocated for a military-style coup. He’s also testified before the committee and took the fifth when questioned if he believes in a peaceful transfer of power between presidential administrations. Whos’ paying his legal fees now?

I have two pieces of advice for people with lawyers provided by MAGA world: Don’t use those lawyers but if you do, insist they’re paid upfront. Pay for your lawyers? Hell, Trump hasn’t even paid Rudy yet.

Music note: I listened to Verbena while drawing today.

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