President Trump’s statement, “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain [Michael Cohen],” is an outrageous characterization of what legal professionals do and spotlights his sense that he is not accountable to anyone but himself.
Lawyers are officers of the court and have a higher obligation than non-lawyers to obey and respect the law. Only corrupt and unethical lawyers conspire with a client to break the law.
If Cohen was a “good lawyer,” he would have first counseled his client that the activity to which he pled guilty was unlawful and not agreed to do what Trump wanted. Instead of proceeding to pay off the two women to keep them from harming Trump’s campaign, he should have withdrawn from representing him.
President Trump’s idea that “a good lawyer” should be willing to engage in criminal acts to protect him from his own bad behavior should be abhorrent to members of the legal profession and all citizens. It shows his disrespect for the law, which he has sworn to uphold, and his lack of good character.
His comment, by itself, shows that Trump is not fit for public service, let alone president of the United States, the chief administrator of our nation’s laws.
Robert Dawes
Durango
