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Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/22/trump-witness-reversal-testimony-jack-smith-00112355

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team revealed the details of the employee’s about-face in a new filing.

Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers

A Trump employee who monitored security cameras at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate abruptly retracted his earlier grand jury testimony and implicated Trump and others in obstruction of justice just after switching from an attorney paid for by a Trump political action committee to a lawyer from the federal defender’s office in Washington, prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday.

43 comments

thelastknowngod

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So the PAC was paying for his first lawyer.. The whole point of the PAC system is that the candidate doesn't control it, right? How does a PAC get held accountable for witness tampering?

Nicenightforawalk

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Trump has been doing this from early on in his presidency with other lawyers and people close to him. His PAC has always been there to pay for all the legal fees and they share the same lawyers then pass on the info between each other to get their clients stories straight and locked in.

mrgoodc4t

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Huh… so they’re kinda shit at it right?

Elderos

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Wish dot com mafia.

extant

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Yeah but we got our justice system off wish too.

frshmt

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Do we expect anything else from something linked to Donny?

nilloc

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I want to expect RICO charges for that behavior, but the 2 tiered legal system has conditioned me to expect very little justice when rich people are involved.

glockenspiel

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Candidates actually can and do control PACs... up to a certain point. For example, the entire reason that Mike Huckabee keeps running for offices he knows he will never get past the very, very early primary stage, is because he can get his PAC funded and he can enrich himself and his family. Did you know that Mike Huckabee pays his children six figures a year for "roles" they hold in his PAC? That includes now-governor (barf) Sarah Huckabee-Sanders.

Trump took it to the extreme, though. But it is completely normal and legal. It is why PACs were always a bullshit proposition. It is also why people hold off so long on officially declaring candidacy and actually filing the paperwork until the deadline because that starts the clock as to when they can no longer directly personally control PACs and directly profit off of them.

Simulation6

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Never use a lawyer being paid by someone else with a major interest in the case.

flipht

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Unless your interests are the same.

Another defendent? Probably never. But like a family member or friend that needs your name to not be dirt? Maybe.

NatakuNox

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In a case involving criminal collusion, courts should require all defendants to have separate council. It's obvious letting the most powerful member being prosecuted paying for the defense of the lessor defendants is a problem.

Dagwood222

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Legal question.

The lawyer was paid by the PAC to represent the employee. Who is the lawyer's client? The employee or the PAC? Could the lawyer be in trouble for putting the PAC's needs ahead of the employee's?

journey01

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The client is the employee. The lawyer's ethical duty is to the employee even though he is being paid by someone else. Same situation when your insurance company hires a lawyer to defend you in a lawsuit.

Dagwood222

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Yes, I was thinking that they were cutting it pretty thin not telling the employee to cut a deal. Hopefully, this will be another case of MAGA [Make Attorneys Get Attorneys]

flipht

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Ianal, but I think they have a responsibility to at least let the defendant know about their options. Other than that, they can have a strategy or suggest the defendant accept the less good options.

Sounds like this guy realized that their "help" wasn't in his own interest.

Dagwood222

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I repeat myself but MAGE also means 'Make Attorneys Get Attorneys]

SnowdenHeroOfOurTime

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First time reading iAnal on Lemmy. Gross. Thought we left that on reddit.

extant

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You can ianal anywhere, and you should legally speaking.

SnowdenHeroOfOurTime

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I'm not commenting on anal sex. I'm commenting on the stupid practice of wild speculation summed up with a bizarre acronym. That acronym should die on reddit.

extant

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I know exactly what you're talking about, and my point still stands that when giving advislce you need to make it clear you are not a lawyer and if you are that you are not their lawyer when giving advice that could be misconstrued as legal advice and possibly cause liability issues. Telling someone directly "I am not a lawyer" or saying it as an acronym accomplishes just that. This isn't a practice that stems from Reddit, but the legal system itself. While using it as an acronym was popularized over the Internet it's certainly never been exclusive to Reddit but anywhere things may be construed as legal advice are.

SnowdenHeroOfOurTime

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Well my point is if you're not a lawyer no advice should be given in the first place

Krakatoa

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That sounds suspiciously like advice. Are you a lawyer?

extant

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I agree to an extent, but you can still provide valued information without being a lawyer a few examples: a subject matter expert, sharing first hand experience, contact information, or documents one might need. Sometimes those things might even be better than advice received from a lawyer.

sndmn

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Just stop.

SnowdenHeroOfOurTime

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Thanks for the block request

PersnickityPenguin

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Tell me YANAL without saying IANAL

jeremyparker

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It seems like you have a problem with the wild speculation, not the acronym. Which is legit, people don't need to have opinions on every single thing they think about, and they certainly don't need to share them. But it kinda seems like they're going to anyway. And, in that case, what's better, wild speculation or wild speculation that admits it?

RHSJack

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Agreed. I think both should die on Reddit. And, please, do it privately with another consenting adult. The "talking out of your ass about stuff you shouldn't be talking about" stuff. And the butt stuff, too. But mostly the former.

roguetrick

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Yes, that's malpractice.

roguetrick

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Lol and the Trump lawyer wants to exclude his testimony as a witness because it's a conflict of interest since he was his former lawyer. What nonsense.