Has Trump ever met a lawyer he couldn’t ruin?
Bondi, Chesebro and Habba are the latest stricken with Giuliani Syndrome
By Sam Bellamy
Sooner or later, it seems all attorneys who go to work for Donald Trump eventually find themselves standing, figuratively speaking, in the parking of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, watching their careers wilt before their eyes.
Rudy Giuliani, who actually lived that moment (as well as an infamous hair dye-dripping howler at a different presser), could have slipped into a quiet life of retirement years ago, beloved Scotch in hand. He would have been fondly remembered by many as “America’s Mayor” for his calming leadership after 9/11.
But, no, for reasons that defy comprehension anyone who’s not MAGA, Rudy couldn’t resist the allure of working for the Bizarro Midas from Queens. Since then, he’s been:
Disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C.
Indicted on a combined 22 felony charges in Georgia and Arizona
Found liable in a $148-million defamation suit by two Georgia election workers
Sued for $1.3 billion over his claims that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the election for Joe Biden
Lost a bid for bankruptcy
Held in contempt of court numerous times for lying to a judge
Sued for $10 million for sexual harassment and wage theft by a former employee almost half his age. (The court filings include a transcript of a recording with gems like this: “These breasts belong to me. Nobody else can get near these, okay? I don't care if they're flirting or they give you business cards. These are mine, you got it?”)
Accused of groping former White House aide and future Jan. 6 Committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson, who’s almost one-third his age, at a rally on Jan. 6
Shown reaching into his trousers during a faux interview with actress Maria Bakalova, who is one-third his age, in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
And after all of that – and probably more – there’s this: Trump stiffed Giuliani on more than $2 million in unpaid bills for legal services.
Other attorneys in Trump’s employ haven’t fallen with a thud quite so loud, but life certainly has been no garden party of late.
Exhibit 1 is Kenneth Chesebro, a member of Trump’s crack 2020 election-denial team, was disbarred last month in New York. He joins Guiliani, Michael Cohen, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and others on the list of Trump representatives who’ve been disbarred or had their licenses suspended. Chesebro has also pleaded guilty to a felony charge in Georgia related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and is facing similar charges in Wisconsin.
In the disbarment case, the court ruled that Chesebro engaged in conduct that “undercuts the very notion of our constitutional democracy that he, as an attorney, swore an oath to uphold.”
Exhibit 2: The Bedminster Fixer
Alina Habba, who represented Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case and other matters, is facing fierce opposition to her continuing in her role as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, Democrats from New Jersey, are leading the charge against her, saying she’s “degraded the office” while serving on an interim basis and “pursued frivolous and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Habba is certainly motivated. According to The New York Times, she appeared on a conservative podcast after gaining her interim appointment and uttered this: “We could turn New Jersey red. I really do believe that. Hopefully while I’m there, I can help that cause.”
Since then, Habba has lost a trespassing case against Newark Mayor Ras Bakara, a Democrat, over a scuffle with ICE agents when he tried to enter a federal immigration jail in his city. Habba also filed charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver, a Democrat, over the same incident.
The judge in the Bakara case called the prosecution a “worrisome misstep” and reminded Habba that her job is “not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas.” Bakara has filed suit against her for malicious prosecution, and an ethics complaint also has been filed.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit news organization NOTUS recently reported that Babba is under investigation for her work on behalf of a former waitress at Trump’s Bedminster golf course. The woman was pursuing a sexual harassment complaint against a manager at the club several years ago.
"The New Jersey Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Ethics has been looking into allegations that Habba mistreated the employee — becoming her lawyer only to convince her to accept a hush money deal for a paltry sum, all to ingratiate herself with Trump," NOTUS reporter Jose Pagliery wrote. "The complaint closely adheres to allegations already made in state court — with a complaint backed by dozens of text messages — that Habba befriended Alice Bianco in the summer of 2021 when the 21-year-old waitress had just found an employment lawyer to file a sexual harassment lawsuit. Text messages show that Habba privately disparaged the other lawyer and offered herself up instead, drafting a $15,000 nondisclosure agreement."
Within weeks of getting Bianco’s signature on that agreement, Habba filed a countersuit for Trump against a former Celebrity Apprentice contestant who’d made sexual assault allegations against him and was suing him for defamation. The case was later settled without monetary compensation.
From there, Habba continued working for Trump as one of his personal attorneys, including in the Carroll defamation case and a failed suit against The New York Times and his niece Mary Trump that left him with a court order to pay almost $400,000 in legal fees. She also represented him in a civil fraud suit in New York over inflated property values; he was assessed $350 million in penalties in that verdict.
The Bianco case turned into a similar mess. New Jersey doesn’t permit nondisclosures like the one she had signed at Habba’s urging, and Bianco later hired another attorney, who won her an $82,000 settlement from Trump’s club. Last year, Habba also settled, for an undisclosed amount, a suit Biano had filed against her.
Exhibit 3: ‘Blondi’ gets Loomered
And then there’s U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who represented Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020. She’s having an especially bad month.
This week, the Justice Department released a memo stating that no evidence has been found that Jeffrey Epstein kept a client list or that he blackmailed anyone. Moreover, the memo said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
This contradicts her claim on Fox News that the client list was sitting on her desk. (She now says she was referring to an Epstein file, not the list.)
“No evidence” is not at all what the MAGA cult was promised by Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel or his lieutenant Dan Bongino, who’d all spread conspiracy theories about the Epstein case in recent years. MAGA was led to believe that Democratic luminaries would be implicated in the Epstein files and maybe even his death.
On X, the vile Alex Jones posted a video of himself crying. “So I’m going to go throw up, actually,” he said of the Justice Department memo. “Because I have integrity, and I just really need the Trump administration to succeed and to save this country, and they were doing so much good, and then for them to do something like this, it tears my guts out.”
“President Trump should fire Blondi for lying to his base and creating a liability for his administration,” posted professional Muslim hater and ad hoc Trump adviser Laura Loomer, who called for Bondi to be fired and later added, “I hope Trump realizes what an Fing LIAR Pam Blondi is. She’s useless. Covering for pedophiles and never arresting criminals.”
Elon Musk, who claimed in a now-deleted post a few weeks ago that Trump is in the Epstein files, resurfaced to mock Bondi and the administration.
“What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again …,” he posted beneath of a photo of a faux “Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter” set to zero.
In the video below, Trump – who was a longtime pal of Epstein’s before an apparent falling out – berates a reporter who asked Bondi about the memo during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump jumps in. “This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.”
He continues, “I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy, with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”
For whatever reason, Trump clearly wants the story to go away. And perhaps his anger can be viewed as a defense of Bondi.
But if the story lingers, Trump might choose to listen the people like Loomer, who seems to have an odd level of influence over him.
If he decides to replace Bondi, one thing is certain: There’s not an attorney in the nation who’d be wise to answer the phone if he calls.