Lawyers and Loyalty: The Trump Example
The recent news about Donald Trump's lawyers taking notes on his criminal conspiracies has raised questions about loyalty and discretion. This blog examines the implications of this situation and offers advice on how to handle legal advice.
Matt Levine
lunch valuation analyst
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"is you taking notes on a criminal conspiracy" etc., but it is kind of great that every time trump sort of hinted to his lawyers that they should do crimes, they took copious notes like "i took this to be a hint that we should do crimes," and handed them right over.
— Matt Levine (@matt_levine) June 9, 2023 -
like this is maybe not the level of loyalty and discretion you want from your lawyer pic.twitter.com/vc18ZoOhLZ
— Matt Levine (@matt_levine) June 9, 2023 -
nothing on this twitter feed is ever legal advice, but don't take your legal advice from stringer bell either. sometimes it turns out to be helpful to have copious contemporaneous notes of a criminal conspiracy.
— Matt Levine (@matt_levine) June 9, 2023 -
by the way the word "memorialized" here is a little unclear, did the lawyer *write* the quoted paragraph in his diary or whatever that day?
— Matt Levine (@matt_levine) June 9, 2023 -
wrote a memo to file describing the client's "crime" gesture, with a little line drawing.
— Matt Levine (@matt_levine) June 9, 2023 -
oh it's even better he dictated the memo in a car https://t.co/OT51zu7SNH pic.twitter.com/zfCavSNTTI
— Matt Levine (@matt_levine) June 9, 2023