Back in the summer I mentioned on The Mark Steyn Show that "cancel culture" was increasingly literal: It used to mean you got kicked off Twitter or Facebook; then it progressed to losing your job or television show or book contract. By 2020 it had advanced to being denied domain registration on the Internet, credit-card services, bank accounts and other basic necessities of modern life. Now, in a country with more lawyers than the rest of the planet combined, the supposedly "most powerful man on earth" wakes up and finds his counsel just canceled:
Lawyers with Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP submitted a filing late Thursday stating they were withdrawing as counsel in a federal suit seeking to block Pennsylvania from certifying its vote. No reason was given. In a statement issued Friday, the firm confirmed the filing but did not say why it was exiting the case.
Powerline's John Hinderaker reckons the reason is pretty obvious:
Porter Wright is a mid-sized law firm with offices in eight cities across the country. But apparently it lacked the courage to stand up against the Twitter mob. The "Lincoln Project" doxxed the two Porter Wright lawyers who signed the Pennsylvania complaint, tweeting their pictures, addresses and telephone numbers, and encouraging leftists to harass them. Reportedly there also were employees at the law firm who objected to representing President Trump. Porter Wright's abandonment of its client is shameful conduct for which I suspect it will receive little but praise.
[UPDATE: A Powerline reader with knowledge of the situation says that Porter Wright has withdrawn from only one of five suits.]
As John points out, in America everybody from 9/11 plotters to celebrity pedophiles, Boston bombers to Oscar-winning serial rapists gets hotshot law firms and nobody bats an eyelid. But not Donald J Trump, who is apparently unfit for legal representation.
If you like the sound of all that "unity" and "healing", this is what it boils down to - unity in the sense the Soviets meant it: the absence of opposition. And, when they're done with Trump, they're serious about that "Truth & Reconciliation" enemies list. To reiterate a point I've made for months: on free speech and related issues, things are going to head south very fast. I carelessly assumed they'd wait till the inauguration, but it seems "the Office of the President-Elect" is already on the case.
Time is of the essence here, and (as I'm well aware from personal experience) nothing sucks up more time and money in an active suit than bringing new lawyers up to speed - so this is a development with many immediate real-world benefits for the Democrats.
Meanwhile, doxxing counsel right out of the case is cheered on by a media hot for the new totalitarianism:
Yes, Going After Trump's Law Firms is Fair Game - Washington Post
Pressure Mounts on Attorneys Lodging US Election Fraud Claims - Connecticut Law Tribune
No Self-Respecting Lawyer Should Touch Trump's Election-Fraud Claims - The Atlantic
Another Law Firm Bails Out on Trump Campaign - Politico
As Daniel Greenfield observes, "If media didn't think Trump could win, it wouldn't be targeting his lawyers":
1. President Trump has a case. Enough of one for Democrats, and their media and legal allies to be worried.
2. The Democrats have something to hide.
Very true. The trick with any legal case is not to over-complicate it:
Trump won the election fair and square on Tuesday night. Then, with mysterious synchronicity, Democrat-run cities in swing states decided they were closing down for the night - something I've never seen in any free election (Canada, UK, France, Denmark, etc) but which is a relatively common trick in dictatorships and the like. When America woke up on Wednesday morning, those Democrat cities (Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta) had been the beneficiaries of necessary replenishments in the small hours, and were well on their way to delivering the election to Biden with voter turnout and candidate margins that bear no relation to the rest of the country, whether one is speaking of blue states, red states, or purple states lacking such efficient Democrat political machines.
That's where the election was stolen.
Whether you can interest the Supreme Court in such a case is a tricky question: America's crap and embarrassing national elections are, by design, run by counties with a thousand mutually incompatible voting systems. Lack of equal protection is thus baked into the cake, and not just tolerated but celebrated.
But I'm not sure it helps to drag, say, Lord Malloch-Brown into all this. I yield to no one in my contempt for this repulsive creature, and I have a decade-and-a-half-long record to prove it. George Soros was literally his landlord, to whom he paid rent of $120,000, from an annual salary of $125,000: now there's a guy who knows how to budget. Sidney Powell, for whom I have the greatest admiration and who will assuredly still be standing by the President when all other lawyers have joined Porter Wright in stampeding for the exits, tweets:
#Soros no. 2 man #Lord Malloch Brown heads up #Dominion funded by corrupt criminal communist money from #VZ #Cuba w/ #CCP.
Stephen McIntyre, slayer of Michael Mann's hockey stick, cautions:
I think that you should dial back implausible allegations of Venezuela and Cuba which won't hold up. If anyone did anything, it was US Democrats.
That's the point: It's a two-party system; one party won the election, and then the other party stole it. It's Trump vs Biden. Expanding it to Trump vs Soros, the Venezuelans, the Cubans et al ensures the case just becomes this season's Durham Report.
And, as we've yet to receive last season's Durham Report, you know how that's going to go.
Trump has now put Rudy Giuliani in sole charge of his multi-case legal pushback. The President could do a lot worse than fly Steve McIntyre down to Washington as his data analyst.
~Steyn Club members are welcome to weigh in in the comments. But this is not an "open thread", so please stay on point.
We opened The Mark Steyn Club over three years ago, and I'm thrilled by all those SteynOnline supporters across the globe - from Fargo to Fiji, Vancouver to Vanuatu, Surrey to the Solomon Islands - who've signed up to be a part of it. My only regret is that we didn't launch it eighteen years ago, but better late than never. You can find more information about the Club here - and, if you've a pal who might be partial to this sort of thing, don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Oh, and if you're seriously chafing under the prospect of election fraud and attendant litigation without end, there's no better cure than booking a berth on our Third Annual Steyn Cruise sailing the Med next year - and with Conrad Black, Michele Bachmann, John O'Sullivan and Douglas Murray among our shipmates. We'll be attempting some seaboard versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Tales for Our Time, our Sunday Poem and other favorite features. If you're minded to give it a go, don't leave it too late: as with most travel and accommodations, the price is more favorable the earlier you book - and, if the post-election goes south, you'll surely be grateful for a break from Kamala.
