The Daily Populous Sunday September 8th, 2024 night edition
Authored by abovethelaw.com and submitted by Fit-Requirement6701

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.

MAGA lawyer telling the podcasters and media people not to rat. pic.twitter.com/IH1QUo9rDZ — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 4, 2024

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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:

If you think it’s cool to talk to the FBI without counsel because you “haven’t broken the law,” you’re an idiot https://t.co/aAg9k3WH7Y — Lawyer Cat* (@LawyerCat_) September 6, 2024

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!

DriftlessDairy on September 7th, 2024 at 13:58 UTC »

So Musk's attorney told him to shut up?

Musk Repeatedly Promoted "Conservative" Outlet That Was Secretly Being Funded by Moscow, According to DOJ Indictment

Elon Musk, currently the world's richest person, repeatedly used his influential X platform — which he bought as Twitter in 2022 — to promote posts from a right-wing media company that was allegedly peddling Russian propaganda in exchange for cash from Moscow.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped a bombshell indictment yesterday alleging that the Russian state-owned media organization RT secretly funneled about $10 million into a Tennessee-based media network that produced videos for and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to several right-wing social media influencers with massive digital footprints. The indictment didn't name the American company at the heart of the covert influence campaign, but as multiple outlets have reported, details make it obvious they're talking about a venture called Tenet Media.

And Musk, who has spiraled deeply into conspiratorial, red-pilled far-right politics, has repeatedly engaged with and boosted content published directly by Tenet Media — not to mention countless posts created and published by the influencers who were cashing Tenet paychecks.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-repeatedly-promoted-conservative-205926850.html

TintedApostle on September 7th, 2024 at 13:46 UTC »

Reminder: These two are worried you might implicate them. They sure don't care if you go to jail.

hotpackage on September 7th, 2024 at 13:45 UTC »

This is how you know Trump is involved.