The rich man pays no bills
by digby
I’m rather surprised that this hasn’t been discussed more. Giuliani works for the president for “free” while he’s collecting large sums of money from foreign actors, Sekulow won’t say who pays him and nobody knows whether Trump is footing any of the bills for his legal defense. It’s a big question. As you know, he tends to favor those who personally give him money:
In 1994, as a slew of scandals were popping up around President Bill Clinton, an attorney who worked with his defense team visited the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) in Washington to ask a simple question in person: Could the president of the United States accept free legal services from his personal lawyers?
An unambiguous answer came back from the OGE, the executive branch’s in-house experts at preventing conflicts of interest: No.
“An inquiry was made very early on after the president retained legal counsel,” the attorney, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Yahoo News. “Meetings were held with the OGE, and the OGE advised that any provision of legal services would have to be done at market rate.”
The OGE’s concern, the attorney explained, “was the appearance of undue influence.” In other words, a lawyer providing the president with free legal services, or a donor who subsidized those services so the president would not have to pay out of his own pocket, might appear to have substantial leverage over America’s most powerful elected official.
Flash forward 25 years, and President Trump is doing things very differently. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the most high-profile member of the personal legal team during both the Russia investigation and the Democrats’ ongoing impeachment inquiry, is providing free legal services to the president.
In an interview earlier this month with Yahoo News, Giuliani responded with an unequivocal “Yes, sir” when asked if he is representing Trump pro bono, including covering expenses. Jay Sekulow, Trump’s other main personal attorney, says his work for Trump is paid, but declined to say by whom or how much.
Until now, Trump’s legal arrangements have been in a gray area of regulation, but critics are trying to change that and the OGE is currently considering establishing new rules for how members of the executive branch can pay for their personal legal needs.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation dedicated to combating corruption, has petitioned the OGE to establish guidelines covering personal attorneys for executive branch officials. Holman, who testified before the office earlier this month, described the current situation — where there are few guidelines and it is unclear where Trump’s lawyers are getting their money from — as “the Wild West.”
The man doesn’t pay his bills so lawyers are actually being smart if they arrange for people who want to bribe him to pay theirs.
I do wonder if at least a few of his fans might think it’s weird that the alleged multi-billionaire isn’t paying his own bills.
Ah never mind.They’ll just say he’s smart. Who likes to pay bills, amirite?
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