As made clear Monday, lawyers caught up with Donald Trump and his false claims that voter fraud cost him the 2020 election can often come under legal scrutiny.
Among the attorneys charged in the 41 count indictment are: Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Ray Smith, Kenneth Cheseboro And Rob Cheley. They are all accused of violating Georgia’s RICO law for their part in the greater crime of overturning the fairly decided election result. .
Of course, the potential legal danger faced by attorneys representing or advising Trump is nothing new. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison after pleading guilty to criminal tax evasion, campaign finance violations and other crimes committed while working for Trump. He is being charged against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In April, Trump’s attorney Boris Epshteyn testified before the grand jury that voted to indict Trump in the January 6, 2021 case of election interference. Trump is the only defendant named so far in that case, but as alleged co-conspirators in the plot. They can still be prosecuted.
So says former Trump lawyer Timothy Parlatore, who stepped down from the former president’s legal team in May to defend him in the classified documents and January 6 cases, Epshteyn was a particularly difficult person to work with. However, like Epshteyn, Parlatore himself was called to testify before a federal grand jury, even though that case involved Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Parlatore wasn’t the first Trump attorney to jump ship. Lawyers James Faithful And John Rowley were put in charge of the documents and January 6 business after Parlatore’s departure. After being indicted in the documents case by Special Counsel Jack Smith in June, Trump said in a statement that it was “a logical time for us to step aside and let others bring the case to completion.”
In March, a federal judge ruled that former Trump attorney Evan Corcoran claims of attorney-client privilege were up for the grand jury in the investigation of classified documents. He testified before the grand jury in April and resigned as one of Trump’s attorneys in May.
According to Trump’s lawyer Christina Bobb, Corcoran asked her to sign a statement to the Justice Department stating that former President Mar-a-Lago’s legal team had “diligently searched,” found only a few files, and promptly returned them. Bobb drafted her own line to accompany the statement saying this was true “as far as I know”.
However, when the FBI searched Trump’s Florida home, they discovered more than 100 additional documents, some of them highly confidential.
Bobb, like so many members of Trump’s legal team, was also interviewed by Justice Department lawyers.
Earlier this year, Trump’s search for ‘another’ Roy Cohnto represent him in legal battles. Cohn represented Trump as both a loyal political fixer and lawyer in the 1970s and 1980s; the hyper-aggressive lawyer was himself charged with witness tampering and perjury, but was later acquitted.
He “gained a reputation for practicing threats, scorched-earth attacks and media manipulation,” the Times noted.
Mr. Trump’s continued efforts to identify and recruit the latest Roy Cohn have always been unusual and impulsive, according to interviews with half a dozen people who have represented or joined Mr. Trump’s legal trials over the past seven years were involved.
