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.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.