Prominent anti-Trump legal pundits have been quietly meeting on Zoom to hash out key talking points ahead of making appearances on corporate media outlets to discuss former President Donald Trump’s court battles, Politico reported Tuesday.
The weekly gatherings reportedly trace back to the House committee that probed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which held an initial meeting with legal and political commentators in 2022 to provide insights into its investigation, according to Politico. Former Obama administration official and CNN legal analyst Norman Eisen hosts the meetings, which have been attended by “never-Trump” conservative Bill Kristol, MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, Jeffrey Toobin and Obama-era U.S. attorneys, among others. (RELATED: ‘Clearheaded Most Of The Time’: Corporate Media Defends Biden’s Lucidity As Interview Transcript Reveals Memory Lapses)
Andrew Weissmann, George Conway, Bill Kristol, Norm Eisen, Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade, Joyce White Vance, Jennifer Rubin, Mary McCord, Harry Litman, Elliot Williams, Asha Rangappa, Norm Ornstein, Renato Mariotti, Shan Wu, Ryan Goodman… https://t.co/ZhFYPQOhD9
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 23, 2024
The meetings hosted by Eisen, who was a lawyer for House Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, usually have 12 or more attendees and are off-the-record, according to Politico. Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, Anti-Trump Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway, Obama-era U.S. attorney Harry Litman and Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin have also reportedly attended the meetings.
None of these individuals provided comments on the record to Politico when gave the chance to, but some spoke anonymously because they lacked approval to contribute to the story, the outlet reported. Some of them expressed nervousness regarding the story’s publication as it could provide ammunition for Trump’s theories about a legal conspiracy targeting him.
One popular legal commentator who has a television contract expressed shock that the meetings occur and said there could be issues with them, according to Politico.
“It runs the risk of creating the impression that there is an agreement or cooperation or conspiracy across mainstream media entities,” the individual told Politico anonymously in order to speak openly. “And that could feed into some false and damaging perceptions, particularly on the right.”
The agenda of the meeting is “usually about what’s coming up this week,” one participant told Politico. They are not always about Trump but usually are, according to the outlet.
“It happens, but it’s rare that somebody says, ‘Well, I think this is a better argument for us,’ or ‘I think that that’s a stupid argument that we shouldn’t be making,’” another participant told Politico.
Trump is currently on trial confronting 34 felony counts of allegedly falsifying business records related to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election.
Eisen did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, but sent an automatic reply that he is out of the office due to being “in court covering the Manhattan election interference trial.”
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