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Showing Original Post only (View all)My guess to why Cipollone came clean, assuming he did. [View all]
Last edited Sat Jul 9, 2022, 09:59 AM - Edit history (1)
From my experiences with bad political lawyers, they suddenly remember their ethical obligations when "word gets out on the street." That's an actual quote from a bad, good ole boy style lawyer in Central Florida. These are the kind of lawyers that work both the private and public sector. You'll find them as City or County lawyers at the same time that they represent private companies that are seeking approval from government.
It isn't uncommon for them to be members of, or even president of the Chamber of Commerce. With the connections they make working both sectors, it is easy for them to control the information that elected officials have in order to make decisions that will benefit the lawyer's clients, and their own pockets.
Because privacy is key to this process, communications are usually through phone calls. Back at the turn of the Millennium, I had a conversation with a group of ex-commissioners and they all told me the same thing. The City attorney would contact them by phone before City meetings and conversations would always be the same. He would impart the information and would say, I have already talked to so and so and they told me they're leaning in favor. Hard to argue with the lawyer when he's the one controlling the information on a subject they may know very little about. Especially when the lawyer goes out of his way to make them feel special, like telling them, "Don't worry, I've got your back." And they did feel special up until the moment they lost an election and were swiftly ghosted. He wouldn't even take their phone calls.
As you would expect, "regular" people who became part of this network believed they were suddenly bullet proof. They see another world that bends the rules to get whatever objective the government is reaching for under the guise of "public good." What happens when these people begin to weave their own personal objectives into this backwater framework? I can write that story.
Bottomline, lawyers can't control all that can go wrong when elected officials start to ad lib. This backwater world only works when there is secrecy and discretion. It is, afterall, a backwater, backroom, shadow government that they're running. Unfortunately for them, the most ethically fluid people may be the easiest ones to use, but they're also the most unpredictable. They talk, they're braggarts. And word finally gets out on the street.
I have to say that locally, they did a great job of tamping down on the public that caught on and tried to expose the group that went rogue here in the nineties, even when word got on the street. I could write that story. Fear mongering, bullying, and defamation. That's how they managed to silence everyone.
The only way out of this rabbit hole is through a formal investigation that will force the lawyers to talk. And some of them will talk because they know that it's the only way to save what's left of their professional reputation. Without it, you become a Giuliani. Someone who the public sees as a cross between a charlatan and con-man. I'm willing to bet that Cipollone is a step or two above Giuliani. He's the kind that will talk because word is now out on the street.
And for that, we have Cassidy Hutchinson and the J6 Committee to thank. You need both to break the pattern.