Trump’s stormy historic relationship with his lawyers

Before, during and after his tenure, dozens of legal experts have worked or continue to do so for Donald Trump. His numerous legal problems have required the former president to have to resort to different and prestigious figures for his defense. But very few of the initial lawyers remain with him and some firms have refused to work for him.

Cases of Rudy Giulianiwho was suspended from his lawyer’s license for defending electoral fraud claimed by his client Donald Trump, or Michael Cohenwho was imprisoned for violating the electoral law by order of the magnate, are some of the examples of how the relationship between the former president and some of his lawyers has ended.

These two cases are only a small representation of those of lawyers who have worked for Trump on a personal level, in the White House or advising him on electoral campaigns, over the last few years.

At this time, Donald Trump is the first former president in the history of the United States to have been accused of federal crimes. Therefore, he could be sentenced to years in prison if he is found guilty of having posed a threat to national security, after keeping confidential government documents in his Mar-a-Lago, Florida mansion. At the same time, he faces a criminal conviction against his company, several civil lawsuits, two investigations and a criminal indictment in Manhattan, among other legal issues. This clarifies the reasons for his reliance on legal experts, some of whom, such as Joe Tacopina in the Stormy Daniels case or Drew Findlingin Trump’s alleged election interference in Georgia, are still by his side and active.

The fact that the former president needs legal advice does not mean that the other party has a desire to work with him. It’s been a year since Washington Post He described the statements used by some lawyers to evade their representation with phrases such as “he is an impossible client”, alluding to the fear of not being paid for their work or the failure to follow the advice suggested for the proper development of the case.

In this sense, Andrea Bernstein manifests herself, who in her book “American Oligarchs” explains how the former president believes that he has a better idea of ​​handling legal matters than his own experts, whom he often overrides. The writer, recently interviewed on the radio station NPRstated that Trump has gone so far as to ask his lawyers to “commit crimes for him, suggesting lying to the Department of Justice and, according to the notes of said lawyers, insinuating that they should destroy or dispose of documents.”

The latest example of a lawyer walking out on Trump came this month, when Jim Trusty He also decided to get out of the case of the former president’s defamation lawsuit against CNN. “Irreconcilable differences” were the reasons given to stop representing Trump.

Before, in May, Tim Talker He waived the legal defense of the New Yorker, alluding to personal issues, after his participation in the case of classified White House documents. This desertion was added to that of Cleta Mitchel, in January 2021, for the Georgia lawsuit in which, through a call, Trump asked the Secretary of State to “find” votes to annul Biden’s victory there. The issue of electoral certifications in places like Pennsylvania and Arizona led to the withdrawal of other lawyers who handled these cases in 2020.

All this leaves Trump in a difficult situation at a time when he faces 37 felony charges, in the case of the documents hidden in his Florida mansion, fraud charges in New York state and investigations in other states for his insistence on electoral fraud.