EmptyWheel opines:
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On Same Day WSJ Confirms Boris Ephsteyn Negotiating Trump's Law Firm Settlements, Amicus Raises Bribery Concerns
On the same day that some Legal Ethics professors submitted an amicus in the Perkins Coie case worrying that the law firm settlements might expose law firms to risk of bribery allegations, WSJ reported that Boris Epshteyn is the one negotiating this protection racket.
EmptyWheel includes this link to the Amicus Brief referenced in the post as having been filed in the Perkins Coie suit against Trump's dubious executive order leaning on law firms to pay to play.
Why MSM declines to take express notice of the problem the Amici clearly lay out is a part of why there is so much submission to Trump's will and to his implicit powers to negatively affect the caving-in party's future well being.
As in, "If he's getting away doing that to top-notch Big Law, what's in it for me besides unneeded grief if I be the nail to be standing up (and getting pounded down). Is this an unfounded and ungrounded view of Trump as being a vindictive person, to a fault? One with Presidential powers, to be feared and placated in any way imaginable? Perhaps another explanation applies. As in,"Just obeying advice of counsel." When Big Law caves, what's an MSM lawyer to say to his/her/their client?
As to the Amici, these are not shabby people looking to gain fifteen minutes of fame, as p.2 of the Brief states:
The full list of amici1 is as follows:
• George M. Cohen, Brokaw Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.
• Susan P. Koniak, Professor of Law, Emerita, Boston University School of Law.
• Jonah E. Perlin, Associate Professor of Law, Legal Practice and Senior Fellow of the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center.
• Nancy B. Rapoport, UNLV Distinguished Professor & Garman Turner Gordon, Professor of Law at William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• Mitt Regan, McDevitt Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession, Georgetown University Law Center.
• W. Bradley Wendel, Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law at Cornell Law School.
Nor are they people with an ax to grind over some prior Trump slight. They see events, and existing litigation, and believe their insight as Amici to be helpful.
Their public service intent and action is laudable, and they merit much respect.
*opening image and opening quote are from the EmptyWheel homepage --