What's interesting about Todd Blanche joining Trump's legal team

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The addition of this new attorney is interesting. The man had to resign from one of the oldest and most prestigious law firms

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/trump-investigation/live-blog/trump-arraignment-live-updates-rcna78079#rcrd12166

Rather, what makes Blanche’s new role fascinating is twofold.

First, for as much as Blanche’s success with Manafort and Fruman likely impressed Trump, the biggest factor might have been one of Blanche’s current clients: Boris Epshteyn, whose phone was seized last year by federal law enforcement in the Justice Department’s ongoing Jan. 6 investigation. Epshteyn is said to have told people he thought Blanche was the right choice to represent the former president, according to The New York Times. That Epshteyn, whose communications with other Trump lawyers has been a subject of inquiry in the DOJ’s Mar-a-Lago records investigation, continues to hold so much sway with Trump is itself revealing.

Second, Blanche essentially has acknowledged he had to resign from his law partnership in order to represent Trump. On one hand, that makes sense: Many prominent law firms skew liberal, on the whole, and in a post-Jan. 6 world, America’s most prestigious law firms have been particularly skittish about Trump-adjacent personnel, as some former administration lawyers learned to their dismay while job hunting. Even Trump’s $3 million Florida Man, former Florida solicitor general Chris Kise, had to leave his law practice to represent Trump.

Yet Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, where Blanche was a partner, not only allowed Blanche to represent Manafort and Fruman, but also remains home to Nicholas Gravante, who represented former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg through his January sentencing after he pled guilty to 15 criminal counts, including tax fraud. And while I cannot prove it, my guess is that for reputational reasons, Cadwalader drew the line at Trump himself. While Big Law is hardly America writ large, could its growing allergy to Trump be a sign of things to come? Watch this space.

[Jarqui]

1. "Gravante, who represented former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg"

So Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has a conflict of interest (or dispute) with Trump because their lawyer, Gravante, suggested Weisselberg talk to the DA about what they had on Weisselberg in the Zurich insurance fraud (for potentially flipping on Trump). When Eric Trump heard that, he allegedly insisted on not Trump org paying for these lawyers to represent Weisselberg any more.

It's pretty well know Trump doesn't like to pay his (legal) bills. The Mar-a-lago lawyers got a $ 3 mil retainer up front. I'd guess Blanche is probably $3-5 mil richer today with an up front retainer. He didn't do Manafort much good - they convicted him or he plead on nearly everything.

[Bev54]

2. Epshteyn has been pivotal in all Trump's legal hires. He coordinates it all so while this

guy is probably a legitimate lawyer and competent, how has that worked out for all his other lawyers. They either end up criming themselves or leave.

[Marius25]

3. Is this guy actually a good lawyer? Or is he a Rudy Giuliani type?

[Ocelot II]

4. I wonder what made him think he should (or could) take on TFG as a client.

By all accounts Blanche is an excellent lawyer, and he must have been making big bucks as a Cadwalader partner, but he walked away from that sweet gig to represent the original Client From Hell. Why? Is he so self-assured that he thinks he can control the client whose representation led to the destruction of the careers of so many other lawyers? Is he hoping for fame and glory as the only lawyer who could bring TFG to heel?

If I were representing TFG (a situation that would cause me to think I'd died and gone to Hell), I would insist on an enormous retainer, payable in advance with the check clearing the bank before I even answered a phone call, and a similarly enormous hourly rate. And I would insist on some stringent conditions for continuing representation. I would guess Blanche has had a serious come-to-Jesus talk with TFG, and maybe he has some conditions, too; maybe like these:

- The client may not issue any public statements through any platform or in any form, either directly or through a third party, without clearing them first with me.

- The client may not discuss this or any other prosecution or civil lawsuit in which he or a member of his family or any of his businesses is a party, in any public forum, including media interviews and campaign rallies.

- The client may not publicly criticize, threaten or disparage any judge, prosecutor or other person involved in any way in any criminal prosecution or civil action in which the client or a member of his family or any of his businesses is a party.

- The client may not use his involvement in any civil or criminal action as a basis for fund-raising.

- Violation of any of these requirements will result in my immediate withdrawal from representation of the client and no refund of any amount already paid as a retainer.

But you know what? TFG would violate at least one of those conditions within a day. Where would that leave me? I could withdraw in accordance with our agreement and keep the fat retainer, but I would no longer have the lucrative partnership at the prestigious law firm I left to take this job, and I no longer will go down in history as the only lawyer who could control TFG and save his big orange ass from a felony conviction. Or I could let it go this once and remind him sternly of our deal, in which case he will certainly do it again and again, and he does. Pretty soon I'm in deep shit with some judge. TFG is out of control, says incriminating things on TV, we go to trial and I lose despite doing some extraordinary and possibly unethical things to try to save the whole mess. TFG fires me (if he hasn't already). I've used up the original retainer and TFG still owes me, but he won't pay. The state bar is breathing down my neck on account of some desperate measures I took but shouldn't have. I'm in the same leaky boat as Rudy Giuliani and Alina Habba and all the other sorry fools...

Beware, Mr. Blanche. This might not end well for you.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. I am also wondering about how large a retainer this attorney got?

One of TFG's attorneys, Chris Kise, got a $3 million retainer only to have that attorney relegated to a lesser role in the special master litigation

Link to tweet

[peggysue2]

5. Personally, I hope the pattern continues . . .

Where Trump's lawyers ultimately need to seek lawyers themselves.

Because Trump corrupts everything and everyone.

ETTD!

[gratuitous]

6. "Many prominent law firms skew liberal"

That has not been my experience over 43 years. Prominent law firms skew risk-averse, and getting your firm's good name mixed up with a mountebank like the former guy is a wholly unnecessary risk. I don't know what Blanche sees for his career after representing the former guy, but it's going to be quite different from what it would have been if he hadn't taken on this client.

I hope he got a large retainer up front.

[Ocelot II]

7. That's correct; they are like the major news media in the sense that

while many individuals might lean toward liberal, the firm itself is risk-averse. A large, respected firm with a diverse collection of clients will want to avoid controversy as much as possible, and it's hard to be more controversial than TFG.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Even Jones Day backed off from representing TFG

I have done a ton of deals with Jones Day over the years and I was happy to see that firm back away from TFG during the 2020 litigation