Unacceptable Behavior Has Consequences

The Epoch Times is reporting today that the law firm representing Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has withdrawn from the case and been replaced. The article notes that an associate of the law firm Kirkland & Ellis left an abusive voicemail for Linda Kerns, an attorney representing the Trump campaign.

The article reports:

The move to switch legal representation comes after Linda Kerns, a lawyer leading the Trump campaign’s efforts to dispute the election results in Pennsylvania, complained to a federal court that she received an abusive voicemail from a Kirkland & Ellis attorney, with Kerns saying the message “by any measure falls afoul of standards of professional conduct.”

In a response, Kirkland lawyer Daniel Donovan said he thought the call was “discourteous and not appropriate” but disagreed with how Kerns had described it.

He said the company associate was “acting unilaterally, in his personal capacity, without the knowledge or authorization of undersigned counsel or the firm.”

Kerns has been placed under official protection after allegedly being subjected to various forms of harassment, with a Nov. 18 filing (pdf) saying she was “the subject of threats of harm, to the point at which the involvement of police and U.S. Marshals has been necessary to provide for her safety.”

She wrote on Nov. 16 that she had “been subjected to continuous harassment in the form of abusive emails, phone calls, physical and economic threats, and even accusations of treason—all for representing the President of the United States’ campaign in this litigation.”

At this point, I would like to note that when terrorists at Guantanamo were tried for their crimes, they were represented by American law firms. No law firm representing the terrorists was harassed or threatened. At that time Americans understood that lawyers represent clients. That is their job. Ideally they do it fairly and well. There is no excuse for the mistreatment of those representing the Trump campaign in these legal cases. Nor is there an excuse for the lists being created by the political left naming those who need to be punished because they supported President Trump. This is not acceptable behavior in a free society.