Like all of us, Harmeet Dhillon, who served as legal advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign and most recently slapped her name on Elon Musk’s dumbest lawsuit, continues to absorb the federal indictment alleging a campaign on the part of Russian intelligence to fund Trump-friendly media and the subsequent charges filed against a former Trump advisor for laundering Russian funds to evade sanctions. Coupled with the potentially unrelated but nonetheless curiously timed memo from the Trump campaign warning everyone to stop talking and special counsel Jack Smith filing an “Ex Parte, In Camera, and Under Seal Notice Regarding Classified Discovery” notice in the insurrection case, everyone in MAGAland is just a little edgy about the bill coming due in the form of criminal liability and denominated in Rubles.
Dhillon recently took to social media to remind the extended MAGAverse that they should probably lawyer up before mouthing off to law enforcement… and some corners have thrown some shade on this message.
As @LawyerCat_ would note, “I know that Ron is just trying to score cheap political points, but Harmeet is 100% correct, and any (good) lawyer would know that.”
The Filipkowski post isn’t exactly accurate either. Dhillon’s advice to lawyer up is not mutually exclusive with ratting. In fact, based on the information that the DOJ already made public, a good lawyer would likely advise their new clients to RACE to the FBI and try and be the first cooperator past the pole. Say what you will about prosecutors, but they’re generally pretty consistent in spooning out their generosity based on who flips first.
That said, the uncharitable reading of Dhillon’s public service announcement is that we all know these folks tend to hire attorneys from off the MAGA lawyer usual suspects list. And, unfortunately, that’s a list with a tendency to dance well outside their practice area comfort zones and who are not exactly unlikely to tell potentially exposed individuals to stay quiet — to the client’s detriment — in order to protect “the boss.” Like, say, reaching out to a Trump-friendly lawyer who tells you to fire your counsel and convinces you to enter an NDA and sign away your rights against a Trump property — not as though allegations like that have become the subject of a lawsuit or anything!
Next time you’re at a restaurant, can you do me a favor?
Will you put one of these VOTE TRUMP FOR NO TAX ON TIPS stickers on your bill?
Democrats are mortified by millions of Americans hearing about President Trump’s popular idea.
So I need YOU to help spread the word!
— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) August 1, 2024
Yeah, next time you’re at a restaurant, can you do me a favor and never listen to a lawyer that says they’d rather be pretty than smart.
Still, it is bad form to publicly intimate that only guilty people hire counsel:
First of all, if someone is getting hit up as part of a federal investigation, they almost certainly have no idea if they’ve broken the law or not. There are a lot of federal criminal statutes and when an unwitting clod hangs around with the criminal element, they can easily stumble into one. “Oh, I didn’t do anything wrong, they just asked me to break $15,000 into a series of $999 money orders….” Congratulations, you structuring dumbass! In any event, this is a conversation that a client should have with a lawyer before spouting off about it to the FBI like it’s no big deal.
Secondly, even if the witness is entirely innocent, a non-lawyer is just going to make everything worse for both themselves and the authorities if they ramble about rank speculation and legally irrelevant details. At best they’re going to spark wild goose chases that put them in the crosshairs or just piss off the DOJ, and at worst they’re going to contradict themselves over something stupid and end up lying to the FBI.
So maybe we’ll adjust Dhillon’s message to square Filipkowski’s concern and LawyerCat’s sound legal advice: “Remember friends, don’t talk to law enforcement without counsel who is an experienced federal criminal defense practitioner and who you can trust has no potential pecuniary or ideological conflicts of interests. Just trust me on this.”
Earlier: Elon Musk Says Advertisers Are Doing The RICO If They Don’t Give Him Money
Alina Habba, You Got Some ‘Splainin’ To Do!
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
