Member-only story
Trump Orders Private Lawyers to Defend Killer-Cops for Free
Happy Law Day!
In a very real sense, the world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive it must choose the rule of law.
–President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, as he designated May 1st as national “Law Day”
Trump’s latest executive order seeks to force private law firms to defend cops who he thinks are “unjustly” accused of…whatever he thinks is “unjust.”
The order includes a directive to his putatively “independent” Attorney General Pam Bondi to use the Justice Department to defend cops in criminal and civil lawsuits, especially civil rights cases. Trump wants Bondi and the DOJ to “include the use of private-sector pro bono assistance for such law enforcement officers.”
No specific law firms are mentioned in the order, but previous executive orders targeted a number of the whitest “white shoe” law firms in the land. At least nine of these firms have not only agreed to make nice with Trump but have collectively agreed to pony up not quite $1 billion in pro bono legal work to support his “priorities” as well.
Cops are normally defended by their department, via their city, and/or by their usually blatantly racist unions, particularly and especially the Fraternal Order of…
