Attorneys at Jones Day, the international law firm that has raked in millions as the Trump campaign’s top outside counsel, have overwhelmingly donated to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign while essentially stiffing the president’s re-election efforts. Individual donations from Jones Day lawyers between January 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020 show approximately $90,000 going to the former vice president, while the total given to President Donald Trump was exactly $50, Reuters reported Tuesday morning.
According to the report, during that same span, Jones Day, where former White House counsel Don McGahn returned in March 2019 to head up the firm’s Government Regulation Practice, has been paid in excess of $4.5 million for legal work by the Trump campaign.
Jones Day is also one of three major law firms that have been working with the campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) to set up a legal network composed of dozens of attorneys across the nation who are preparing to challenge the results of the Nov. 3 election should Trump appear to lose, Politico reported in late September. The other firms are Consovoy McCarthy, which has defended that president in litigation seeking his tax returns; and King and Spalding, where former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein is now a partner.
Similarly, lawyers from Washington, D.C.-based law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, which has earned more than $250,000 from the Trump campaign for work relating to lawsuits challenging states’ mail-in voting procedures, donated $5,750 to Biden and $0 to Trump.
Reuters’ review of more than 120,000 campaign contributions made by individual attorneys (not the law firms) also revealed that the Biden campaign has been seriously outpacing Trump among legal professionals in general.
“A Reuters analysis of Federal Election Commission records shows a wide gulf between individual lawyer donations to the candidates, with nearly $29 million going directly to Biden’s campaign and just under $1.75 million to Trump’s,” the report stated.
Even the law firms whose attorneys have contributed the most to the president’s campaign—Fish & Richardson, Kirkland & Ellis (Attorney General Bill Barr’s former law firm), and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher–have given far more to Trump’s opponent.
“Attorneys at each of those firms donated significantly more to Biden’s campaign – about 10 times more at Gibson Dunn and about 20 times more at Kirkland,” the report stated.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager framed the lack of donations to Donald Trump as actually a bad sign for Joe Biden’s candidacy.
“It shouldn’t be news that rich, liberal lawyers in Biden’s pocket are desperately trying to make up for his lackluster candidacy or that every big law firm has lawyers on both sides of the political aisle,” said Zager in response the report.
[image via NBC News screengrab]
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