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Donald Trump’s reputation as a historically bad, financially delinquent client who has collected a spectacular number of legal crises is catching up to him. In the week following the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, which led to the revelation that the Justice Department is investigating Trump for possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws, the former president and his aides are reportedly scrambling to find a team of respected defense lawyers. 

“Everyone is saying no,” an anonymous source told the Washington Post. Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard Law School professor who has advised Trump in the past, didn’t seem too encouraging either, telling the Post that “good lawyers should have been working on this case for months.”

But clearly, such “good lawyers” have eluded Trump as he sinks further into a legal hot mess. Perhaps lawyers aren’t touching the case with a 10-foot pole in order to avoid the fate of Trump’s former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, whose own role in the Big Lie now has him embroiled in the criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia. Let’s also recall that Giuliani’s deeply problematic television interviews were reportedly central to his firing from his own law firm. He eventually got his license suspended by the New York Bar last year. 

So far, here’s the legal team Trump has managed to convince to defend him in his cascading legal troubles, according to the Post: 

Lindsey Halligan, a Florida insurance lawyer with, according to an investigation by the Washington Post, no prior experience on federal cases.

Alina Habba, a partner of a three-attorney firm and former general counsel for a parking garage company.

Christina Bobb, a former TV host of a pro-Trump news network who’s prior federal experience includes trademark infringement cases

Not exactly a crack team. But these days, with Trump increasingly threatened by mounting legal woes, who would want to join the ranks of Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and other MAGA-allied lawyers?

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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