Ted Boutrous is a successful lawyer. He is a well known litigator in one of the country’s most prestigious law firms. In fact, they’ve represented people like Mark Cuban and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
He’s a good guy, too!
I know this because Boutrous has offered to represent anyone who is sued by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for exercising their right to free speech.
And he won’t charge you for it.
I repeat: I will represent pro bono anyone #Trump sues for exercising their free speech rights. Many other lawyers have offered to join me. https://t.co/LJf6TtmGZU
— Ted Boutrous (@BoutrousTed) October 22, 2016
Boutrous is not alone, either.
Laurence Tribe is a well known constitutional law professor at Harvard University. He’s promising the same free defense of anyone sued by Trump just for telling the truth.
You can count on me to help with this pro bono, @BoutrousTed https://t.co/hwC2K0TLCB
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) October 23, 2016
Pretty cool! This restores my faith in Americans, for sure.
It seems that there are a lot of people who are disgusted with Trump’s constant threats to sue. USA Today reports that Trump has been involved in over 3, 500 lawsuits. He routinely uses the law to badger and intimidate his opponents.
Trump has famously refused to pay contractors who have worked on his multi-million dollar projects. When those small companies ask for payment, Trump glibly tells them to take him to court, knowing that the costs would stop them from going forward. They end up settling for cents on the dollar, every time.
He has also threatened to sue various media outlets when they report information that he doesn’t like.
Donald Trump threatens legal action against NBC over 'Access Hollywood' tape https://t.co/IWhwwHcHjz via @CNNMoney
— ?andrew?kaczynski? (@KFILE) October 28, 2016
Most recently, the Republican blowhard threatened to sue the women who have stepped forward to accuse him of sexual impropriety.
10,000 Lawyers offer to pay to represent @nytimes and take discovery from @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/w84vgcoyRs
— Lance Tane (@LanceTane) October 13, 2016
That threat, as well as his threats to sue the media, prompted the famous lawyer to send his original tweet offering a pro bono defense. The response to his offer has been excellent. Boutrous said:
“Ever since I sent that tweet, the outpouring from other lawyers and people who want to help is just incredible. It was so offensive to fundamental First Amendment values and democratic principles to have someone threaten to sue people who are criticizing him. The First Amendment is designed to protect exactly that kind of speech.”
This is the part that Donald Trump seems incapable of understanding. It is a violation of the U.S. Constitution to deny people the right to speak freely, even if they criticize you.
Having written my fair share of articles that criticize the big orange buffoon, I’m very happy to know these guys have my back!
Featured image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Generic License 2.0
