In May, Ethics Alarms expressed its horror here, here and here over the unethical, conflicted deal engineered by Trump’s acting-Attorney General and Trump’s Treasury Dept. to bestow undeserved benefits on the President, his family, and the Trump Organization. I wrote at the end of the last of these, “I continue to think, or at least hope, that this abomination will be stopped. As I already wrote when asked in a comment, this, unlike the artificial offenses behind the two purely partisan impeachments in Trump’s first term, is a genuine impeachable offense.”
Well Calloo! Callay! It has been stopped, and very emphatically too.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said in her 56-page order yesterday that the President and his fellow plaintiffs, his adult sons and the Trump Organization LLC, may not refer in any judicial, administrative or other official proceeding to the “purported ‘settlement agreement'” that gave them broad protection from federal government audits and investigations. The judge then sanctioned the attorneys that represented Trump in his personal capacity, Daniel Z. Epstein of Epstein & Co. LLC and Alejandro Brito of Brito PLLC.
Good. They should be sanctioned. They should be suspended. If I had the choice, I would disbar them. They are both a disgrace to the legal profession.
“This lawsuit was not brought to vindicate rights,” Judge Williams wrote. “It was brought to manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation because the parties were not adverse.”
“Because the parties were not adverse”! Bingo! On that basis, the case should have been at very least stayed by this same judge until Trump was out of office and not controlling the adversary party, and may I add, DUH! Judge Williams was asleep at the switch in May, and perhaps that adds to her obvious fury now. Her one excuse is that she didn’t realize exactly what was going on because it happened so fast and no President has had the gall to try anything like this before.
Ethics Alarms 
I am no fan of Trump, as you know, but I have to … well, not exactly defend, but at least equivocate on his behalf.
The Democrats did the exact same thing under Obama. Under Biden, they did the same thing but instead of enriching their cronies as Trump and Obama did, they simply accrued more power and funding to the EPA without going through appropriations. Trump actually tried to get “sue and settle” stopped by legislation in his first term. Neither Obama nor Biden did that, because they were happy to use it for their own ends.
This has been going on a long time, and the only reason Trump’s arrangement looks more egregious is because of the sketchiness of the beneficiaries.
The judge’s decision is rife with reversible error, and I am convinced it will not survive.
However, I want to see this nonsense stopped by both parties. Perhaps this will have the effect of making the “sue and settle” abuse of power so toxic it will not happen again. I know, I may be naive, but…
Glenn, all: This is an excellent analysis by legal ethicist Brad Wendel: https://bradwendel.substack.com/p/disciplinary-referrals-for-doj-lawyers?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2647671&post_id=207084363&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=8r6kz&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Ths was a “win” /”win” for Trump, he either got a huge fund or a very simple precent that this type of “settlement” was unlawful. Now get rid of public unions for all government employees as an example of the exact same lack of adversity.
Would you disbar a lawyer for the FBI who forged an e-mail and presented it to a court in order to obtain a warrant?
You have to ask?????
The DC Bar did not.
They set the precedent, not you.
Different question. You didn’t ask what I thought the DC bar would do. I think my assessment of the quality of my bar’s disciplinary system is a matter of record.
I was under the impression that the suit was initiated under the Biden administration which was settled after he won. I can see how that at that point their was no adversarial interest at this time but we have seen that statutes of limitations are not a bar to those wishing to “lock him up”.
A stay until out of office would make sense but to disbar his attorney who initiated the suit when there was an adversarial interest seems to me to be just another way to prevent anyone from representing Trump by using potential disbarment as a tool. It is no different that Guido saying “that’s a nice business you have. I hope nothing bad happens to it”.
What of John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani who have been disbarred in several states for giving legal opinions that ran contrary to the established narrative? Both were targeted and that fund would have provided some form of redress. With that said, why do we need a fund in the first place if you can go to court and win a suit against the government. Hell, many have won large judgements against local governments for rights violations. Do those in power who simply say settle for millions rather than fight the claim that use taxpayer dollars really have an adversarial interest when they make those decisions. I can say the same thing about school boards that vote on teacher pay or other government unions.
I don’t know which emits a greater stench, this settlement or the fact that parts of the government continue to find ways to inflict pain through lawfare on the disfavored while favoring their own.
“I was under the impression that the suit was initiated under the Biden administration which was settled after he won.”
So was I. It wasn’t. The suite was filed in January OF THIS YEAR and almost immediately withdrawn with the “settlement.” One of the many aspects of it that make a colorable excuse impossible to maintain.