Michelle Bachmann Admits to Legal Malpractice

[MisterGamut]

Run time: 00:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlR2AW6sYII   Posted on YouTube: August 20, 2011 By YouTube Member: gamutman Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: August 20, 2011 By DU Member: MisterGamut Views on DU: 1814

 
Working as a lawyer for the IRS in order to undermine the IRS is the very definition of a conflict of interest, malfeasance, malpractice and bad faith so far as I can tell. It amounts to espionage.

[ScottLand]

1. I'm guessing she became a Christian for the same reason.

[marias23]

2. It may be a breach of her employment contract with the IRS

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. I like how she says she "worked in that system"

No ma'am you were a "revenuer"... a tax collector. You WERE the IRS!!


The questions I want to know: How many lives did you destroy? How many paychecks did you garnish? How many liens did you file?

[suzanner]

4. learning how to game that system for her own gain, more like

[MisterGamut]

5. She's a liar to boot

In the past, she's said that working there is what made her so opposed to them. So which is it? Did she take the job because she hates them or does she hate them because she took the job?

[russspeakeasy]

6. I have no idea why, but I wish she would join a motorcycle gang.

:evilgrin:

[Jim Lane]

7. The legal ethics here aren't that clear.

From the comments, I expected the clip to show her saying something like "I was always on the side of the taxpayer." That would support an argument that she was acting against the interests of her client.

As it is, however, she merely conveys the impression that she wanted a better understanding of how a government agency operated, so that, after leaving the agency, she could be more effective on the other side. Frankly, that's not at all uncommon. The classic example is in criminal law, where many lawyers work for a while in the district attorney's office and then go into private practice as criminal defense lawyers. It happens with regard to other agencies as well.

I don't know if she ever represented clients against the IRS, but even that wouldn't be prohibited. She's barred from working on the other side of the same matter on which she worked for the government, and she's barred from using any confidential information that she gained while an IRS employee, but a general knowledge of tax practices isn't an attorney-client confidence.

This isn't a very promising line of attach against Bachmann. There's more to be gained by simply pointing out to the Tea Partiers that, when it was in her personal interest to work for the IRS, that's what she did.

[MisterGamut]

9. Of course, I'm not a lawyer...

However, it seems to me that she was (at the very least) acting in bad faith IF this statement is true (which I doubt anyway.) If she's acting in bad faith, that's malfeasance (as I read the law.) If she was acting as a "double agent" to gather information against the IRS, that's a conflict of interest (again, as I read the law.) And if she knowingly engaged in a conflict of interest, that's malpractice.

Now, it's entirely possible that while inside the IRS she acted solely in the IRS's interests despite her conflict, but somehow I don't see that as being in her character.

[joanbarnes]

8. And that's why she wants to be in government now, to destroy it.

[MisterGamut]

10. Her and Rick Perry both.

He publicly admits his desire to change the Constitution so that congress ca override the courts and so that the senate can be selected rather than elected as well as a few other changes he wants to make. How do you swear to defend a Constitution you're actively campaigning to undermine?