Gordon Sondland (remember that asshole?) is suing the government and Pompeo:
President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate for legal fees incurred during the 2019 House impeachment probe.
The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that Pompeo reneged on his promise that the State Department would cover the fees after Sondland delivered bombshell testimony accusing Trump and his aides of pressuring the government of Ukraine to investigate then presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid.
How the hell can any person who isn’t a multi-millionaire serve in government? I don’t know if $1.8 million is ridiculously high for a couple of months of representation, but even if it is double or triple what a reasonable defense would cost, most people don’t have 6 figures worth of cash lying around to pay lawyers. I frankly don’t care about Gordon Sondland, but if Republicans get into power in the House or Senate and decide to BENGHAZI! a bunch of Biden appointees, it’s going to make a lot of competent people think twice about serving in government. If Republicans take the White House in 2024, nobody in the executive branch is going to reimburse former Biden appointees as they’re called before committees trying to determine if Major shit on the carpet in the Oval Office, or whatever other nonsense they dream up.
(Just to be clear: I’m talking about Sondland’s legal fees, not Pompeo’s legal jeopardy.)
Baud
This is essentially a suit against the government. Pompeo won’t really have to pay a dime.
ETA: Ok, having read the article, the key is to officials who don’t make stupid promises to pay. Still, I doubt Pompeo is in trouble here.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Baud: I updated the post – I mean Sondland’s legal fees, not Pompeo’s legal jeopardy, which I assume is pretty much zero.
Bill K
With anything associated with Trump it should always be pay in advance and get it in writing.
pat
I too wonder what the repubs will be up to if they take over the House and Senate.
Look what is happening in all the states where they are in control. They are totally ….out of control..
Finally some sunshine here, off to see what the wildflowers are doing in the state park.
Ken
“Hey, I found out you’re going to be asked to testify about the events with which I’ve been charged. Tell you what, I’ll pay all your legal fees….”
Does that strike anyone else as dodgy? Or outright criminal, in any other legal procedure.
rikyrah
@pat:
We already know what they would do. We saw what they did with Dolt45 when they controlled everything.
rikyrah
suing the government?
BWA HA HA HA AH AH HA
Phuck that piece of garbage.
Benw
Maybe the lesson here is not to do crimes on behalf of an asshole who promises to pay and never does.
Old School
I’m pretty sure that’s the going rate most lawyers on this blog charge, isn’t it?
Jim Appleton
Hey! My home state (OR) tops two consecutive BJ posts!
Sondland is a Portland cashbag.
The Moar You Know
Don’t know. He decided to spill the beans, I’m sure contrary to the agreement he had with Pompeo, and wanted to be able to walk away and have a life afterwards, so really not sure. I don’t know what those lawyers did or how many he had. It may not be at all unreasonable.
The problem of being able to bankrupt people you don’t like with legal fees – and I mean life-ruining levels of legal fees – is not limited to the world of government
ETA: My wife and I carry several million dollars worth of “umbrella insurance” (lawsuit insurance) largely because she’s a schoolteacher. Teachers should but quite a few don’t or can’t afford it. Is that reasonable?
Ken
@Old School: I think a better comparison would be with lawyers with a similar practice. How much did Giuliani think he could get from TFG?
zhena gogolia
Thanks for this post, which sent me back to enjoy once again Sean Maloney’s questioning of Sondland. WATCH AND ENJOY
youtube.com/watch?v=qpQyY5YsI3M
jonas
Lemme get this straight: Sondland, a donor and TFG crony takes a bullshit ambassadorship for which he is utterly unqualified, gets caught up in a bunch of TFG’s corrupt bullshit in the Ukraine and now wants the US taxpayers to cover his legal bills?
Lol. He can fuck right off.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Benw: “i beat up a counterprotestor at a donald trump rally in greenville, sc, under the assumption the trump campaign would cover my legal fees, & all i got was this stupid teeshirt”.
Steve in the ATL
Clearly I have been charging my clients way, way too little….
Old School
@Ken:
He was asking Trump for $20,000 per day.
catclub
@Ken:
Corporations do it all the time, I suspect. As usual, it is what is legal that is the crime.
Steve in the ATL
I assume he hired a “dream team” of the most expensive Beltway lawyers he could find, because that’s what people like him do. I can’t imagine that one would truly need more than $50-100k worth of lawyering for his needs.
But what the hell do I know?
catclub
@Old School: This answer is not responsive to the question.
catclub
@Old School:
There was a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin says that somebody (Bill Cosby) earning $20M a year is a ridiculous amount of money. Hobbes agrees, … and then says $15M is about right.
rp
$1.8 million is insanely high. That’s 5 lawyers working 60 hours a week for 6 weeks for $1000/hour each. Major corporate clients would freak if they got a bill like that.
billcinsd
@Old School: That would take 90 days to hit $1.8 Million
rp
@rp: That might be ok for a $100 billion merger between two Fortune 50 companies where you need several top tier lawyers working around the clock on due diligence and negotiations. But it’s a bit much for doing some research, attending meetings, and prepping your client for testimony.
Kelly
Open Thread? Here’s a repost from a late night thread.
Via Statesman outdoor writer Zach Urness a map website that offers outlines of fires over the last 20 years or so. Oh My!
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=44.40632,-121.48132&z=9&b=mbt&a=fire
I am quite struck by the 3/4 or so of the Mt Jeff Wilderness that burned in the last 20 years. Much of it twice. Still untouched the southwest corner Maxwell Butte, Santiam Lake to Three Finger Jack. Also a band across the center Pamelia Lake, Hunt’s Cove, Table Lake. Our nearest wilderness, my folks took us camping in the Mt Jeff wilderness starting when I was in grade school. I’ve spent a lot of time up there.
I kinda knew from following the news year after year but it’s different to see it all.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rp:
Lots of “in house consults” on that billing, I’d wager.
Benw
@MontyTheClipArtMongoose: I’d wear the crap outta that tee, and get another one that says “I’m the counterprotester”
JaneE
Did he get it in writing? Signed by whom?
Then again, I am old and can’t imagine why a witness should need legal counsel at all.
Here’s a thought. If Pompeo told you to do something and then said the government would pay for any lawyers you might need, chances are it wasn’t legal. If he heard about you testifying and then offered to pay your legal fees, chances are it wasn’t legal fees he was offering. If you were too dumb to recognize what it was, that is your problem.
prostratedragon
Starting around 3pm Eastern, Live stream 80th birthday party for Bob Dylan, from Ireland (I think it is).
Also, some interviews and letters between Dylan and friend Tony Glover.
trollhattan
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
“All legal fees shall be covered by ‘Pompeo for President 2024.'”
It’s what’s for dinner.
hueyplong
Isn’t this a case of “Let them fight?”
janesays
Then America is over and I’m leaving.
trnc
No one had to assume anything. DT explicitly promised it.
Almost Retired
I have been practicing law in Los Angeles and San Francisco for a very long time (I think I was sworn in by the Mexican Governor General of Alta California), and that number startled me as well.
Until I saw that his attorneys are a Los Angeles-based firm, with which I am very familiar. The lead attorney, Louis “Skip” Miller is an excellent attorney, and he commands top dollar.
But — how to says this gently — he is very “thorough” in his billing practices. I would imagine that 1.8MM figure included a “murder” of experts and consultants (I believe “murder” is the collective noun for experts and consultants, is it not)?
Miller has represented many public agencies in Los Angeles, but I wasn’t aware his firm was practicing in Washington, DC. He used to be a partner at a firm in Century City that had a lot of celebrity clients (which I think he still does). Not sure why ‘ol Gordie hired a LA firm, but he is a West Coaster.
trnc
I’m guessing that you don’t represent money launderers or their associates.
Steve in the ATL
@Almost Retired:
The judges would also have accepted “a bankrupting event of experts and consultants”
Steve in the ATL
@trnc: good point. And there just aren’t enough celebrity dog bite cases to sustain a full-time practice.
planetjanet
@rp:
That is the going rate for some DC lawyers that I know.
RepubAnon
@Old School: Given that Trump never as his bills, it’s amazing that people actually believe such promises.
RepubAnon
@Old School: Given that Trump never as his bills, it’s amazing that people actually believe such promises. Relying on Republicans to keep promises is never a reasonable decision.
Just One More Canuck
@Steve in the ATL: as a forensic accountant I can only wish that was true
sdhays
@Steve in the ATL: Apparently the government agrees with you:
So, basically this jackass heard that the government would reimburse his legal fees and didn’t read the fine print that this wasn’t a blank check from the Federal Treasury to find the
finestmost expensive lawyers and experts and consultants and hair stylists money can buy.Almost Retired
I misread the Post article. The LA attorney is representing him in this action, and not the 2019 matter. But, there are bills in Gordie’s future!
Ken
@Just One More Canuck: I’d love to see a CSI spinoff for forensic accountants. Unfortunately I’m probably about 5% of the potential US audience.
(Act III every week: a fifteen-minute montage of people cross-checking ledgers against spreadsheets, ending with a dramatic musical sting as one of them says “Hmm….”)
Steve in the ATL
@Ken:
I like the scene Act II where they order more coffee and another white board!
Ruckus
@Ken:
Didn’t RG work for nothing, free, zip, nada?
Now I know that work is not always worth what is paid for it but in this instance…….
And I’d bet that RG had real knowledge that shitforbrains didn’t/doesn’t pay unless he is absolutely forced to. He’s the guy that makes most anyone considered wealthy look like a better human, in that he stiffs most everyone he can. (although I’d bet that a percentage of the wealthy are no better – or even worse. I have examples in mind)
Nothing like learning the basics from good ole dad…..
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Way too easy…..
Way, Way too easy…..
Ruckus
@Kelly:
Arn’t fires natures way of regenerating land/vegitation? In that when the undergrowth gets to be too much to sustain any plant life, lighting strikes and burns out everything. But we, not liking fires (well most normal humans) so much, stop them when we can. Which somewhat makes them worse when they do finally hit. Here in socal, near where I live, we’ve had a couple of fires in wilderness areas that haven’t burned for decades. Now when those areas do burn the fire is almost unstoppable.
KrackenJack
@Steve in the ATL:
Isn’t there a Nolo “Preparing for Your Legislative Testimony: Federal Edition”?
James E Powell
@KrackenJack:
Lying to Congress in a Nutshell
Just One More Canuck
@Ken: so you’ve seen footage from my old office
LivinginExile
@trnc: Assumes facts not in evidence.
Kelly
@Ruckus:
The natural severity fires depends on local climate. In dryer climates with pine woods yes regular fires can be small, 15 to 50 years apart and leave the big trees. In the western Cascades and Coast Range plentiful rainfall raises the underbrush way too fast for small fires. Forestry researchers have evidence that these rainy places always had catastrophic fires 100~400 years apart. I believe the we can manage our way out of this problem was a hopeful guess.
Heading out for a nice walk!
Ken
@Just One More Canuck: No, but I’ve got a relative who’s an auditor with one of the big accounting firms, and who sometimes shares stories of what corporations try to get away with. I imagine it’s even worse when they aren’t at least nominally cooperating with the process.
I also admire anyone that takes on white-collar crime. My attitude is captured by Terry Pratchett in Going Postal, where the golem explains to the con artist that statistically he has caused 3.8 deaths. He didn’t hit people over the head with a club, but when his scams caused businesses to fail, people were put through hardships that killed them just as surely.
Just One More Canuck
@Ken: I did one case a long time ago where the opposing side put all their documents in an unheated parking lot storage locker in winter, gave me and my co-worker a 3×3 desk and said, ‘that’s all we’re doing for you. Have fun!’ We poked through the boxes for about an hour, called the partner I was working for. He got on the phone with the lawyers who retained us, and everything was sitting in a boardroom by 9am the next morning
karen marie
You talking about Sondland, the guy who bought his ambassadorship? Given his reported income, he can easily afford to pay his own legal fees (which are no more than what he’s spent bribing politicians, including Individual-1 – “the substantial sum is a small fraction of his wealth”)
@The Moar You Know: The amount cited isn’t close to big enough to bankrupt Sondland. He’s just a WATB who’s mad because he thought he’d bought enough of the right people.