Schroedinger's Client

One of Donald Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow, who hasn't actually been representing him for very long, was on all the Sunday talk shows defending his new client. He was a big bag of loud bluster but clearly in way over his head -- in the course of the morning he insisted Trump wasn't under criminal investigation and then later conceded that he had no idea what he was talking about and then agreeing his client actually was under criminal investigation.

The Wasington Post published a good article about Sekulow yesterday (link here), with the title "Jay Sekulow, Trump’s unlikely lawyer," focusing on how he has wide experience in civil litigation but close to zero experience in criminal defense work. That means the President of the United States is being defended in possible criminal proceedings by an attorney with the equivalent experience of a third-year law student.

I got a huge laugh at a woefully naive comment Sekulow made when he was being rhetorically disemboweled by Chris Wallace: his "proof" that Trump wasn't being criminally investigated was the fact that Sekulow hadn't been told there was a criminal investigation. If Sekulow actually had any serious criminal defense experience at the federal bar, he would know that targets are rarely told they are the subjects of a criminal investigation through their attorneys until they are about to be arrested so that arrangements can be made for them to surrender to authorities and avoid the public perp walk, an option that is not offered to all suspects.

Salon also has a good piece about Trump's criminal defense lawyer with training wheels (link here), with the title "Jay Sekulow’s bizarre debut: Donald Trump picked a lawyer he saw on Fox News and it isn’t going well," that details the lawyer's experience representing ultra-conservative clients, including the anti-LGBT hate group American Center for Law and Justice, founded by religious zealot and huckster Pat Robertson.

Isn't curious how Trump is always gravitating toward anti-LGBT haters for someone who claims to be "a friend of the gays"? A fast Google search also turned up an interesting 2005 article from Legal Times (link here) about how Sekulow has a history of securities fraud and also how he started charities that he used for self-enrichment, including one charity that bought houses worth millions for him to live in.

It sounds like Sekulow has the same Swiss cheese ethics as his new client Trump. Birds of a feather will flock together.