Joel Cohen Resigning Because One's Criminal Client Has Gone Awry?
Every criminal defense lawyer who has ever lived has been met with this: "How can you represent such a person?" And, "Is there someone you wouldn't represent?" In his Ethics and Criminal Practice column, Joel Cohen tackles the issue of terminating representation once the representation is underway, using Steve Bannon and his attorney, William Burck, as an example.
December 07, 2020 at 12:30 PM
8 minute read
Steve Bannon is a wild card under the best of circumstances. His far right politics and sometimes-support of President Trump notwithstanding, virtually no criminal lawyer except a dyed in the wool NeverTrumper would have declined to represent him when he was indicted for alleged fraudulent online fundraising for "We Build the Wall." That's the nature of the criminal biz model, after all.
But, when it started to look like Joe Biden would be victorious, Bannon's lawyer asked the court to be relieved of the representation. Why? Although counsel's motion gave no reason, presumably it was because Bannon published a video on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook invoking medieval punishment: "I'd like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I'd put the heads [of Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray] on pikes, right? I'd put them on the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you're gone."
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