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Trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

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Slim Cognito
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Trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#1

Post by Slim Cognito »

Key impeachment witness Gordon Sondland sues Mike Pompeo and U.S. for $1.8 million in legal fees
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html

Sondland says Pompeo promised the State Dept would reimburse him job-related attorney fees, until he testified trump wanted quid pro quo. Now Sondland is suing. He was reimbursed about $80K but not the full amount.

My first impression, he's so screwed. Hopefully the IAALs will disagree.
The complaint alleges that Pompeo told Sondland that government lawyers would not be made available to represent him but that if he hired his own counsel, his attorney fees would be covered by the U.S. government. Top aides to Pompeo also acknowledged this commitment, the suit alleges, but “everything changed” after Sondland delivered his testimony alleging a “quid pro quo” and then refused to resign despite a request from one of Pompeo’s most trusted aides, Ulrich Brechbuhl.
...
Sondland is demanding that the U.S. government cover the fees or Pompeo pay out of his own pocket. The suit argues that Pompeo’s actions as secretary of state should not be subject to governmental immunity because the promise “was self-serving, made entirely for personal reasons for his own political survival in the hopes that Ambassador Sondland would not implicate him or others by his testimony.”
...
“Was there a quid pro quo?” Sondland said during his testimony. “With regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

“Everyone was in the loop,” he said. “It was no secret.”
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filly
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#2

Post by filly »

Sondland bought his Ambassadorship by giving $1 million to the Trump Inaugural Committee. It's hard to feel much sympathy for him.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#3

Post by Maybenaut »

Slim Cognito wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 10:08 am
My first impression, he's so screwed. Hopefully the IAALs will disagree.
Here’s a link to the Complaint. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 83.1.0.pdf

Ordinarily, government employees can’t hire outside counsel to conduct litigation on behalf of the government. There are exceptions, one of which is that the Secretary of State can authorize it under certain circumstances. The Complaint alleges that Pompeo authorized it, and by doing so, bound the government to a contract. And if the United States isn’t bound, the Complaint alleges that Pompeo is on the hook individually for either fraudulent misrepresentation or negligent misrepresentation.

I’m with filly. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. If he gets some or all of his money back, great (although I’d like to see Pompeo rather than the US taxpayers foot the bill for this). If the only
thing he gets is more attorneys fees, I’m OK with that, too.
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filly
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#4

Post by filly »

Not to mention that Gordo is incurring even more attorney's fees in a pursuit to collect attorney's fees that will probably not be successful.

Also, too, Gordo's fees would have been less if he had told the truth initially and his lawyers didn't have to go back in a keep "amending" his testimony.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#5

Post by Slim Cognito »

Personally, I don't care how much Gordo is out, but I would like to see him win, if only to piss trump and Pompeo off.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#6

Post by fierceredpanda »

If this whole sordid affair makes unqualified wealthy people more reluctant to buy ambassadorships on the basis that they might have to cover their own legal expenses, I fail to see how that's a bad thing for American diplomacy.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#7

Post by somerset »

And on top of that, no matter what the outcome, Pompeo is being sued in his individual capacity. I think this makes his legal bills his alone, unless he can somehow get a PAC to pay them. I don't think he can get the current State Department to represent him.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#8

Post by noblepa »

somerset wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:51 pm And on top of that, no matter what the outcome, Pompeo is being sued in his individual capacity. I think this makes his legal bills his alone, unless he can somehow get a PAC to pay them. I don't think he can get the current State Department to represent him.
IANAL, but, if he can convince a judge that the actions he is accused of were done in his capacity as SOS, can't he ask that the case against him personally, be dismissed, and that the government mount his defense?

Isn't that what Trump tried to do with that defamation suit; claim he was acting in his capacity as President and therefore could not be sued as plain old Donald Trump?
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#9

Post by SuzieC »

Tricky question for the Biden Justice Dept.: whether they will defend Pompeo, as a governement employee when these events occurred.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#10

Post by much ado »

If Sondland does not have anything in writing from the State Department, I think he is out of luck.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#11

Post by tek »

Not that I don't think that Pompeo is a total scumball, but Sondland bought his Ambassadorship. He knew who he was getting in bed with, and he can afford to pay his legal bills.
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Re: trump-Related Law Suits Not Involving trump

#12

Post by much ado »

Sondland should just chalk it up to the cost of doing business with jerks. Suing the jerks will just end up costing him more money. Dumb. He needs to know when to cut his losses.
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