He has also called Trump's history of harsh comments about the five Black and Latino men who as teenagers were wrongly convicted of the brutal rape of a jogger in Central Park "racist, cruel, sick, unforgivable, and un-American!"
Findling, who has been an advocate of criminal justice reform and a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In addition to becoming a sort of celebrity among celebrities for his vigorous defence of hip-hop artists — with multiple appearances in Instagram photos alongside A-list rappers, often sporting dark sunglasses — Findling has done criminal defence work for a number of high-profile political clients in the Atlanta area.
Among them was Mitzi Bickers, who once worked in the administration of former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and who was convicted in March on nine federal corruption counts as part of a multimillion-dollar contracting and kickback scandal.
Another client, Victor Hill, is the sheriff of Clayton County, a suburban area south of Atlanta. Hill, an African American with a tough-on-crime reputation, has been indicted on numerous federal civil rights charges for the alleged mistreatment of detainees at the local jail and has been suspended from his position pending trial.
The investigation into post election meddling is being led by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, which encompasses much of Atlanta. To date, at least 17 people have been designated as targets who could face criminal charges. Trump is not among them, but evidence and testimony are still being taken in by a special grand jury, and Willis has said she is weighing a number of potential criminal charges, including racketeering and conspiracy.
In a hearing Tuesday, a state judge told lawyers for Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that their client needed to travel to Atlanta to testify next week. And in a hearing in federal court here Wednesday, lawyers for Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina faced a sceptical reception from a judge on their efforts to quash a subpoena from Willis' office seeking the senator's testimony.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Danny Hakim and Richard Fausset
© 2022 THE NEW YORK TIMES
