Government

White House Counsel's Legal Advice: Stay Away From Trump!

That's the stellar legal advice a T-14 law degree gets ya!

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White House Counsel Pat Cipollone (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Like a kid on the playground branded with cooties, everyone’s running far, far away from Donald Trump. One of his few remaining attorneys has abandoned ship today, saying his legal services were used “to perpetrate a crime,” but that’s not the only legal advice going against Trump.

Vanity Fair reports on what was going on in the White House as violent insurrectionists took the Capitol Building  yesterday. They don’t have insight into what the President was doing as his supporters attempted a coup, but they do have the 411 on what White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was up to. Cipollone, formerly of the Biglaw monolith Kirkland & Ellis and a graduate of the elite law school at the University of Chicago, was reportedly worried that Trump may be committing treason and advising staffers and advisors to stay away from the president to reduce their chances of being tried under the Sedition Act:

As the violent mob incited by President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, some West Wing staffers panicked that they were possibly becoming participants in a coup to overthrow the government. “What do I do? Resign?” one nervous White House staffer asked a friend on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after news broke that a woman had been shot and killed inside the Capitol. The West Wing staffer told the friend that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was urging White House officials not to speak to Trump or enable his coup attempt in any way, so they could reduce the chance they could be prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. “They’re being told to stay away from Trump,” the friend said. The White House declined to comment.

With rumors of the invocation of the 25th Amendment swirling around, looks like Cipollone isn’t too confident everyone will get one of those pardons Trump’s been handing out like candy.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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