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In Going After Whitman, Allred Crosses Ethical Line

By: Curt Levey (Diary)  |  September 30th, 2010 at 06:04 PM  | 

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Feminist attorney Gloria Allred continued her attack on California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman this afternoon:

Gloria Allred just went after Meg Whitman with a vengeance waiving a letter from the Social Security Administration sent to Meg back in 2003, putting Meg and her husband on notice there was a problem with their housekeeper’s Social Security number – a sign she was here illegally.

Allred is representing the housekeeper, Nicky Diaz Santillan, who was eventually fired by Whitman in 2009, immediately after Whitman says she found out Santillan was in the country illegally.

Whitman says her opponent, Jerry Brown, is behind the attacks.  I haven’t seen any proof yet but I wouldn’t be surprised.  After all, Allred has contributed to Jerry Brown’s campaigns and has a long history of involvement in Democratic causes (she was a Hillary Clinton delegate in 2008).

But forget Jerry Brown’s involvement for the moment.  As a lawyer, I’m most concerned about Allred’s legal ethics.  Perhaps Allred does great legal work for women – at least Democratic women – behind the scenes.  But every time I hear about her “representing” a woman, it seems the woman is little more than a prop for getting Allred on TV or enabling Allred to pursue some political cause.  Remember, Allred is the attorney who held a press conference the day before Governor Schwarzenegger was first elected, accusing him of fondling her female client.  After the election, Allred’s lawsuit against Schwarzenegger was dropped.

To be fair, Allred is hardly the first lawyer to push up against the ethical line by taking a case because of its publicity value rather than a careful consideration of the client’s interests.  But this time, Allred seems to have gone way over the line by ostensibly representing Santillan while actually throwing her under the bus.

How could it possibly be in Nicky Santillan’s best interest for Allred to announce on national TV that Santillan is in the country illegally?  At very least, the publicity makes it virtually impossible for Santillan to hold another job in the U.S. – after all, no employer can claim they didn’t know she was here illegally – and makes Santillan a sitting duck for any ICE agent in the mood to do their job.  No wonder Santillan was crying at yesterday’s press conference.

Perhaps you could argue that Allred is acting ethically if the damage she inflicts on Santillan is likely to be outweighed by the damages Santillan receives from a lawsuit against Whitman.  But don’t count on Santillan collecting anything more than, perhaps, a little back pay. Whitman may be guilty of knowingly employing an illegal immigrant.  But if so, she was doing Santillan a favor by not firing her or reporting her to immigration authorities in 2003.  So what are the damages?

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  • l7squared

    has a woman come forward and admit she has committed crimes.

    What has he done about it?

    If it turns out that he got wind of this and made political hay out of it instead of prosecuting, what are the legal repercussions?

  • Libertarian Republican

    I’ve sat here for five minutes trying to think of words to describe her that would not violate the standards of this forum.

    …none come to mind.

    • texasgalt

      and she has found another victim who cries well on cue.

      • throwback59

        No other description needed.

  • renny

    about the maid, but Soc. Sec. says such letters about conflicting SS numbers are only sent to employers with 10 or more hires. How many maids would Whitman have?

    If we can have a Sec. of the Treasury who didn’t pay his taxes, a DC capital full of pol. staff members that owe $9 million, and a president who doesn’t even have college records or a work history, I think a problem like a Mexican maid in CA who was illegal, since nearly 25% of the state is illegal, hardly rises to the level of scandal.

    Whitman forcefully denies the whole deal. Brown is a loon and nothing about CA Dems. make them trustworthy. I think we have to go with Whitman on this one.

  • earlgrey

    I lost all respect for Allred.

    • seattle_ite

      Among other things, she’s a complete hypocrite about women’s issues. Bill Clinton can sexually harrass women all day long, and Gloria doesn’t care.

      I’m a guy, and I find that level of duplicity disgusting.

      • earlgrey

        It’s true. Not a joke. Wonderful pins with her suits.

        BTW, I heard Mark Levin rip her apart on his radio show. He had her cracking pretty early in the segment and she never got back.

        • seattle_ite

          Levin is a razor-sharp man, and I’ve no doubt he ripped her a new one (figuratively speaking, of course).

          Evita was also one to look good, but hide the sharks teeth in her personality. I’m fairly sure that even Stalin cleaned up pretty well. Doesn’t mean I have to respect their ideology.

          My point was, that I can’t respect a ‘feminist’ who throws certain women under the bus for poitical points. Allred has always made my skin crawl.

  • swami7774

    I was sickened by what a self-promotional windbag Allred is. She couldn’t care less about the woman sitting next to her. Some of the reporters there weren’t buying her line, which is refreshing.

  • Tbone

    Really, the majority of Republicans and, more importantly , independents are totally pissed about illegal immigration. It is the low income legal Latinos that are hurt economically by illegal aliens. As such, that is the point that Republicans should be driving home if the Party wants its share of the growing Latino vote.

    Latino’s don’t have the collective victimization complex that blacks have and which has been exploited by the Democrats to turn the black community into a zombie block vote.

    The Republicans should also point to the total failure of the Democrat’s policies in lifting the black community to higher social and economic status and say “Hey Latinos, you want your kids and grand kids to ends up on that plantation?”.

    As for Whitman, the Gloria Allred show isn’t going to flip any votes.

    • Libertarian Republican

      …but…

      ?Hey Latinos, you want your kids and grand kids to ends up on that plantation??

      Sorry guy, but there is no political reality in which this statement flies. And can we stop with racial identity politics PERIOD.

      Larry Elder, Herman Cain and myself have no “collective victization complex” and while blanket judging isn’t my thing, the La Raza set of the latino community and it’s reconquista ways certainly play the victim card loudly and often.

      • Tbone

        Now, if that ain’t real racial identity politics, you tell me what is? La Raza? Yep.

        La Raza does not speak for the majority of Latinos and I doubt that it ever will. Thankfully, because it would gladly put Latinos as a block onto the Democrat plantation so that its leaders could buy a seat at the big boys table.

        What, is plantation to loaded a word for you? Well too bad, because that is exactly how the Democrats have viewed AND treated the black vote for the last 45 years.

        If I were a Latino, instead of an American Indian, I would be scared to death that my community would suffer the fate that the black community has suffered from 45+ years as Democrats have pandered out scraps of economic and social hope.

        • Libertarian Republican

          … was merely pointing out that it’s not a practical thing to say. Least wise if you want to win an election. And as fr as the black vote I’ve never thought it all that important. Blacks congregate in a relative few areas in the US and those urban areas would most likely be blue anyway.

          I’m against political pandering, but sadly it works in practice. And to your point of the black community suffering under Dems, I would say the poor blacks as well as the poor whites, latinos, etc. All suffer under the left. Socialist policies expand poverty wherever they go. The impoverished, somewhat paradoxically, seem all to quick to embrace these policies when all evidence points to their failure.

          That’s why I think a poll tax and some basic civics knowledge should be required before you are allowed to vote. It’s a problem when those with the least skin in the game disproportionally affect election outcomes.

          • Tbone

            That would eliminate 25% of the Republican vote and 75% of the Democrat vote.

  • tollen

    –since SS Admin sends those letters to employers every year after January 31st if there are mix-ups with SSN and names. Once an employer rsponds to the best of his/her ability, based on data received from employee, the employer usually does not hear from SS Admin again.

    I would guess the burden of proof is on the government — since we sign government documents when we become employees!

    Gloria Alldred should know that the employment agency is the effective employer, –she is too sleazy, a money grubbing liberal:):)

  • SoFiMil

    So let me get this right.

    Meg Wh itman should have known her housekeeper was illegal. That’s right, this time the Left is describing the Whitmans’ housekeeper as an “illegal,” rather than solely an “immigrant.”

    After all, according to the Left’s logic, the housekeeper had brown skin, so obviously she was illegal. Meg Whitman should have asked for her papers.

    • seattle_ite

      Now that it’s a Republican with a hispanic housekeeper, she’s illegal and it’s a scandal.

      A Democrat with a hispanic nanny, it’s no big deal if she’s an undocumented alien.

      Curious.

  • texasgalt

    The maids application which shows a SS# and DL#, redacted.

    http://bit.ly/9XGumr

    That’s two pieces of ID as required on an I-9.

  • Martin Knight

    If I were advising Whitman I’d tell her to really pound on the following;

    1. The writing on the letter is not her husband’s – he says he didn’t write it because never saw the letter. If he had, and gone as far as to write instructions on it for Santilla, he would have discussed it with her.
    2. Obviously, Whitman’s husband’s handwriting was forged. As a nine year employee, Santilla would certainly be familiar with it and may even have legitimate correspondence from Dr. Harsh as a baseline for the forgery.
    3. The Whitman campaign demands the original copy of the letter for forensic dating to determine the time when the letter was printed and the time the supposed note by Whitman’s husband was written.
    4. Since neither Whitman nor her husband saw the letter, how did Santilla get a hold of a letter from the SSA to the Whitmans? This suggests a crime on the part of Santilla (intercepting mail) and Allred aiding and abetting after the fact.
    5. Gloria Allred has made a disgusting habit of popping up in the last weeks of a campaign to level false allegations against Republican candidates in a bid to torpedo their campaigns. She did this back in 2002 when she tried to derail Arnold’s election bid with false sexual harassment charges and she’s doing the exact same thing now. Why is being granted any form of legitimacy knowing that this is what she does?
    6. To the Press; is she supposed to employ illegal aliens? Is that not illegal? What exactly is Allred and the press corps’ complaint? Are they really complaining that Whitman failed to do something that went against the law? Furthermore, an employee lied to her about her immigration status with false papers, obviously intercepted mail between her and the SSA – when she discovered it, she let the employee go; where’s the “scandal” here?

    I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. For Republicans, the best way past a ginned up “scandal” or “controversy” is through it – not trying to move on past it or hoping it goes away. Democrats can do that. Republicans can’t.

    Force the partisan hacks calling themselves journalists and trying to make it a “scandal” defend why it is a “scandal.” Attack their decisions on the legitimacy of the issue. I guarantee that by the end of the week it’s on page B53 on its way to an ignoble death.

  • teresakoch

    Seems to me that Ms. Diaz should be doing time in a Federal prison at this point….

    • DavidS1787

      Gloria could get Sued by her Client if she gets deported………
      and
      Should get sued by Meg Whitman and get disbared.

  • http://jhpruitt.blogtownhall.com/ kipling

    1. How did Gloria Allred get a copy of the letter – if indeed she has a letter?

    Possible Answer: The maid stole it to keep Whitman from finding out and thus commited another felony.

    Possible Answer: Someone in the federal government leaked the letter – or fabricated a letter – to hurt Whitman.

    Possible Answer: Allred or someone seeking to gain from the attack stole the letter.

    Not a Possible Answer: Whitman gave the letter to Allred or the maid.

    2. None of this proves that Whitman received the letter. It is not unheard of for the federal government to not reponsd properly.

    • Scope

      and having done payroll for many years, if a SS number doesn’t match, they send you a letter saying as much. Why was there just one letter from 2003 from SS, but not letters from 03 thru 09, when the maid was let go? If her SS number was bad in 03, it would have been bad in all the years since then? Where are the IRS letters for every succeeding year? This story has more holes than swiss cheese.

      • tollen

        the record was clearly fixed or the letters would have kept coming, unless they were somehow “misplaced”.

        Having received these kind of notices, it takes years to get government employees to fix records, even employees of the SSA.
        Sometimes we have had conversations with the agency and they have asked us to send the employee with the issue to their closest office while requesting that we respond as requested by the notice.

        Gloria Alldred has stepped in it, –I think:):) YEAH!

        Go Meg!!

  • Doc Holliday

    they are dumpster diving and looking for anyone to pay off. Our side better at least do some of its own snooping if only for a sound defense. The left expects us and the electorate to throw every Republican they dig up dirt on under the bus. What they don’t get, and will never get, is we don’t need perfect candidates. We are not looking for leaders, we are looking for people to reduce the scope of government.

    • seattle_ite

      … better not crop up, here. Foley could have fought back and kept his seat; he did nothing that many Dems hadn’t exceeded.

      And Allen should have gone on the offense; totally agree about that.

  • Darin_H

    Allred – knowing that it was not addressed to Nicky Diaz Santillan – aiding after the fact. She should be disbarred (and thrown in jail)

  • lewincolorado

    Can’t we find some responsible lawyer in California to get that P O S disbarred?

    • Curt Levey

      You don?t have to be a lawyer (or a victim of the wrongdoing) to file a bar complaint.

  • Superheater

    “As a lawyer, I?m most concerned about Allred?s legal ethics.”

    As a non-lawyer, I find “legal ethics” somewhere between oxymoronic and non-existent.

    I’m just tired of seeing “Esq” as a license to do things non-JD’s could never do, indeed wouldn’t think of doing and having assertions of vigorous client representation and peer acceptance as ready justification.

    Lawyers write the laws, interpret the laws and enforce the law-and the proliferation of laws seems only to benefit the Bar Association.

    One thing missing from the current revolt against the “ruling class” is a recognition that the Bar is a central part of the problem, a medieval cartel holding itself out as the guardian of civil order.

  • Jack_Savage

    Is she the porn star or the older married woman? I’m confused.

  • jackhammer

    That seems like pretty good money for someone who is not legally in the country. So it is not like she is taking advantage of the woman, she is paying 3 times minimum wage.

  • pirate55

    As a former member of the law enforcement profession wearing a number of different hats in a 36 year career, I must confess that OTHER than politicians, the lawyer profession is one of the most poorly policed professions in this country. If one happens to be a politician AND a lawyer, they are the PERFECTA of that which I have very little confidence in given the current climate of our country.

    That said, nearly 40 years ago I nearly embarked upon the legal profession but made a detour to law enforcement, much to the consternation and disappointment of my mother. I continue to distrust both, yet recognize there is a distinct minority of both lawyers and politicians meriting my respect. Notice I said MINORITY. The time to start changing that is NOW.