Opinion

It did not take long for the United States to have its first mass-casualty attack. On January 1, in New Orleans, a Christian-born American citizen who was also a retired member of the military plowed a large vehicle into a crowd of revelers, killing 15. He had also put out some bombs on the street beforehand that, thankfully, did not detonate.

Before I address the merits of President Biden giving his son Hunter a full pardon, I want to address the timing. It was done on December 1. Various reasons were given as to that particular date, such as it was after Thanksgiving, and it was before Hunter was going to be sentenced.

Question: Is a lawyer liable to a client for giving him bad advice that causes the victim financial harm?

Short Answer: According to most poskim, a lawyer would not be liable for giving bad advice.

In last week’s column, “Senate 1, Trump 0,” I wrote that “I would not be surprised if Trump fires FBI Director Christopher Wray and tries to bring in an unqualified loyalist such as Kash Patel.” An FBI director’s term is 10 years, which was set to be longer than any president’s term to gain independence from the White House. This was due to President Richard Nixon’s misuse of the FBI. Nixon’s acting FBI director and nominee for the permanent post, L. Patrick Gray, resigned in 1973 after it was revealed that he was giving the White House daily briefings on the FBI’s Watergate investigation and that he destroyed documents relevant to the inquiry.

It looked like the government was going to shut down due to the Musketeer (someone else’s nickname idea) Elon Musk and Trump’s objection to the bipartisan spending bill that was negotiated in the House of Representatives. Trump wanted a provision to increase the debt ceiling. First, he said for two years, and then he said until the end of his term. Trump said he wanted it to be done on Biden’s watch. Due to their pressure, the Republicans in the House backed away from the deal.

Last week I wrote about whether the Senate would have the courage to vote down Trump’s clearly unqualified picks who have baggage or views beyond the pale. It did not take too long to find out. Despite calls made by Trump, and VP-Elect Vance accompanying Matt Gaetz to meetings with key senators, it was clear that there was a group of senators who were not going to budge no matter what. So, the bully backed down and Gaetz withdrew his nomination.