Trump is Immune — But His Lawyers Aren’t
By Alec Pruchnicki
It’s very frustrating to watch Trump’s minions testifying before Congress where their statements are often misleading if not possibly perjurious. Sometimes government officials simply refuse to testify knowing that contempt of Congress is a seldom used penalty. Since they have Trump’s protection and can probably look forward to blanket pardons when he leaves office, is there any way to hold them accountable?
Many of Trump’s henchmen are lawyers. Lawyers usually need to be admitted to the bar association of their states to practice. This is their weakness and their possible vulnerability to accountability.
Emil Bove served in the Trump administration and was accused of criminal contempt of a court order concerning deportations. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, our state senator at the time, made a referral to the New York State Bar Association saying that this alleged criminal contempt action was nonprofessional conduct and should be investigated. Trump appointed Bove to a federal court position and so he managed to duck a bar investigation and possible disbarment. Other Trump supporters weren’t so lucky.
Many of Trump’s lawyers were involved in overturning or undermining the results of the 2020 presidential election. This includes Rudy Giuliani who was disbarred in New York and Washington and had severe financial penalties for related activities. Jenna Ellis had her law license suspended for three years. Kenneth Chesebro was disbarred in New York. John Eastman was disbarred in California. And Michael Cohen was convicted, sent to jail, and disbarred for previous work for Trump in the hush-money case. Several others were investigated and I’m not sure of the final results, but you get the idea. While he was president, Trump could have pardoned all these people for federal crimes and maybe intervened in the disbarment proceedings, but not after he was out of office.
Someday, Trump will be out of office again. Those people who are currently doing his bidding in their governmental positions or are giving misleading or inaccurate testimony to Congress might be open to similar accusations of nonprofessional conduct, if not outright illegality. Trump can, and probably will, give many of them blanket pardons for anything they did during their service in his current term. But he cannot block disbarment proceedings, especially when he is out of office.
Why would this frighten them, or give them pause when they are carrying out his wishes during his term in office? Often, people who serve in prominent governmental positions have good prospects for lucrative employment afterward. Many are lawyers and their marketability in the future might heavily depend on their ability to practice law in the best law firms. Where are the best and most profitable law firms? New York is the top location, as well as Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, to name a few. They are heavily Democratic cities in heavily Democratic states. There also are large firms in Republican Texas, Georgia, and Florida, but not as profitable on average as firms in the other cities. They are not very likely to get a state bar association loaded with friendly MAGA Republicans. A disbarment could cause major financial and professional problems, not to mention the shame of being disbarred (assuming these people are capable of shame after serving in the Trump administration).
There are several ways this process can be speeded up. It might not be necessary to wait until Trump is out of office, since Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal didn’t wait to request a bar inquiry about Bove. And, although he can complain that his people are being harassed, I don’t believe there is any way Trump can interfere with state bar society investigations. Another possibility is to start investigations by the state legislatures and to send subpoenas to the federal officials. They would undoubtably challenge such subpoenas and might be protected by some legal or judicial ruling but this would still be on their record and might come up again after Trump is out of office and presidential immunity cannot be invoked.
I hope nobody reading this proposal is starting to feel sorry for these people potentially having their legal careers ended. Their careers essentially ended when they became lapdogs for Trump. They will probably always find a position in some Republican state, on Fox News, a podcast, the right-wing blogosphere, or whatever. But something must be done to start to pressure these people without whom Trump could not carry out his agendas. We cannot wait three years for this administration to be gone or one year for the Democrats to take back part or all of Congress. So, like Madame Defarge, let’s start making a list for future reference. Bondi, Blanche, Pirro, Halligan, and others. RFK Jr. is a special case and I’ll deal with him in a different article.
