Philly Trump lawyer seeks to quit case, saying president used his services ‘to perpetrate a crime’
In a remarkable legal filing that came less than a day after rioters whipped up by the president’s rhetoric sacked the U.S. Capitol, lawyer Jerome M. Marcus called Trump's recent actions "repugnant."
A lawyer who represented President Donald Trump’s campaign in challenges to Philadelphia’s election sought to withdraw his representation Thursday, saying the president had used his services “to perpetrate a crime.”
In a remarkable but terse legal filing that came less than a day after rioters whipped up by the president’s rhetoric sacked the U.S. Capitol, Merion-based lawyer Jerome M. Marcus said he found the president’s recent actions “repugnant” and cited the state’s rules of professional conduct for attorneys in justifying his withdrawal request.
Marcus, a former federal prosecutor, represented the campaign in its federal court effort to challenge the level of access Philadelphia had granted to partisan monitors while it counted the city’s votes in November.
His efforts during a Nov. 4 hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond led to one of the most quoted exchanges of Trump’s legal effort to overturn the election, underscoring the feebleness of his campaign’s claims of election malfeasance.
Under questioning from the judge, Marcus conceded that there were “a nonzero number” of Trump monitors allowed to view the vote counting.
“I’m sorry,” Diamond responded, “then what’s your problem?”
The case has remained largely dormant since that hearing, which Diamond concluded by urging the two sides to work out an accommodation.
In a statement Thursday to The Inquirer, Marcus said he stood by the case he argued in court. But he added: “I believe that the filing of that and other cases was used by President Trump yesterday to incite people to violence. … I want absolutely no part of that.”
Before his work for the Trump campaign, Marcus gained attention in Republican legal circles for leading Paula Jones’ sexual-misconduct lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in the ’90s.
In November, he wrote a column in the Federalist, a right-wing website, touting his role in the Trump campaign case.
Before granting Marcus’ request to withdraw, Diamond issued an order Thursday requesting responses from the other parties in the case.
Read Marcus’ request to withdraw from Trump’s legal challenge: