"They'll have no credibility": Experts say Trump lawyers may face "discipline" if they violated rule
Source: Salon
"They'll have no credibility": Experts say Trump lawyers may face "discipline" if they violated rule
Trump bond timeline raises questions about whether his lawyers violated ethics rule
By TATYANA TANDANPOLIE
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED APRIL 8, 2024 4:07PM (EDT)
Donald Trump secured a huge victory late last month when a New York court reduced his half-billion dollar bond to $175 million after his lawyers expressed difficulty with producing bond for the full judgement while he appealed. But the former president's lawyers may have made a crucial misstep in failing to disclose that a billionaire financier had offered to put up the full $464 million judgement, according to ProPublica, and legal experts say it could cost them.
"It's unethical to either initially knowingly present false information or to fail to correct misinformation that's been provided to the court," Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson told Salon.
While lawyers don't always have "straight information" from their client, they do have an "ethical obligation" under the code of conduct to correct false statements and information, she explained, noting that if Trump's lawyers "at some point" knew they'd "made a misrepresentation" to the court, they had the "responsibility to clear that up."
"You have, first, a duty to push on your client to tell you the truth and find out what's really happening," Levenson said, adding that a potential ethics concern "shows the court that they just cannot trust Trump's lawyers" and incentivizes the court to "push harder for verification of the facts."
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Read more: https://www.salon.com/2024/04/08/theyll-have-no-credibility-experts-say-lawyers-may-face-discipline-if-they-violated-rule/
