The January 6 insurrection attempt in Washington D.C. at Donald Trump’s behest has certainly spawned some continuing drama in the United States, including hundreds of legal cases stemming from charges of trespassing and other crimes at the deadly event. But one of the lawyers representing a number of those accused has had a drama following him that’s taken on a life of its own.
John Pierce, a Trump-supporting lawyer who was helping a number of defendants with Capitol insurrection-related cases, made headlines this week with a report that he was struggling to do his job due to contracting coronavirus. Which was, of course, a thing he didn’t believe existed. Reports said that the lawyer was on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19, but a new report casts significant doubt on that. In fact,
But now there’s speculation that he was not actually sick and merely trying to hide for some reason. Because as The Daily Beast detailed, the lawyer now appears to have gone missing altogether. The report noted three different rioters who had Pierce as their lawyer have opted not to work with him anymore, mostly because they can’t find him.
Marshall told the judge that Pierce was in the hospital with COVID-19, on a ventilator and unresponsive. A few hours later, a colleague of Pierce’s—or a friend, depending on who you ask—said in a statement that Pierce, 49, was in the hospital with what he thought might have been COVID, but was actually “dehydration and exhaustion.” But Marshall had previously also claimed that Pierce had been in some sort of accident, and another person close to Pierce said that he had in fact been hospitalized but was not on a ventilator.
Since then, Marshall, who is under criminal indictment in Pennsylvania on 15 felony charges stemming from an alleged scheme that bilked an elderly widow out of $86,000, has repeatedly feigned ignorance about the specifics of Pierce’s condition. Pierce “is sick,” Marshall insisted to The Daily Beast, but said he hadn’t seen him and only knew “what I was told.”
Whether Pierce is actually sick, exhausted, or simply trying to fall off the face of the Earth for whatever reason, it’s weird to say the least. And according to the report, his clients are rightfully furious and unwilling to work with him anymore.
[via The Daily Beast]