Lawyer For At Least 17 Rioters Plans “Public Authority” Defense That Trump Had Legally Sanctioned The Attack

The Daily Beast reports:

Once a high-flying civil attorney, lawyer John Pierce has reinvented himself, in the face of mountains of debt, as a go-to lawyer for conservative causes célèbres.

Pierce now represents at least 17 of the Jan. 6 defendants, more than any other lawyer. His clients include Proud Boy William Pepe and L. Brent Bozell IV, the son of conservative commentator L. Brent Bozell III.

In one court hearing, Pierce said he would pursue a “public authority defense”—an unusual legal tactic sometimes used by informants that would see him argue that his clients believed that the government, in the form of Donald Trump, had legally sanctioned their law-breaking

Read the full article. Really. Read it.

A top lawyer for Jan. 6 riot defendants has plenty of problems of his own, including a struggling legal case involving chimps, huge debts, and a staffer accused of defrauding an elderly woman of nearly $100K. https://t.co/xP0aVxDXdp

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) August 2, 2021

The U.S. Capitol riot launched one of the largest investigations in DOJ history, with hundreds of defendants now facing charges. But the lawyer who’s put himself at the center of nearly 20 of the legal defenses has plenty of problems of his own. https://t.co/J10ElJvfK1

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 2, 2021