A Note From Bill Shipley-

Today is the "National Day of Giving."
The January 6 Legal Defense Fund was created to help January 6 defendants without the ability to hire an attorney the option to pick an attorney to represent them rather than having to accept the attorney appointed for them by the Court.
If you are a regular reader of my timeline here, or a subscriber to my Substack column, you know that the work I do representing Jan 6 defendants is almost entirely supported by online contributions towards the costs of defending the cases. Some of the defendants can make small contributions towards the costs of their cases -- usually through their own fundraising -- but others cannot even do that. One defendant had an asset to sell and he did that, but his case turned out to be one of the most expensive in terms of time and costs so fundraising was necessary to account for the excess in his case.
Roberto Minuta, Michael Greene, Chris Worrell, Leo Bozell and Michael Olivares all chose to take their cases to trial. Those cases combined involved a total of 96 days in trial -- out of 250 working days a year.
Since Thanksgiving 2022 I have spent 130 nights in hotels and Airbnbs in Washington DC -- Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard, etc. -- no Four Seasons or JW Marriotts on my list of accommodations.
I made 11 cross-country trips to D.C. for six trials, sentencing proceedings, or other hearings where my in-person attendance was required -- all seated in Economy Class on United Airlines.
I purposely pick hotels close to Washington DC Metro stations so I can ride the Metro back and forth to Court -- $3 each way -- rather than rely too much on Uber. No rental cars for J6 case-related purposes.
Finally, a sizeable amount of money pays for help by another attorney behind the scenes who works with the clients and their families, manages the electronic discovery and the database we use, deals with calendaring issues, does legal research, and puts together many first-drafts on various projects involved in the cases.
If I was looking to get rich practicing law, I would not have gone down this path. I've never told the entire story about how I came to find myself in this situation, and I'm not going to do so here. But about this time two years ago I had a choice when the original source of funding the defense work disappeared overnight -- walk away and let the J6 defendants find other attorneys, or continue representing J6 clients and attempt to cover the costs through fundraising on my own. I wasn't happy about having to do it -- my original arrangement left that entirely in the hands of others -- but I had to do it in order to keep doing the work.
I was surprised -- shocked really -- by the level of donations received the first six months. But now over 18 months I have seen both the "highs" and "lows" of online donations, and learned there is a "cycle" in non-profit fundraising that the Jan 6 Legal Defense Fund is subject to like all others. That cycle involves a "desert" of non-giving each year, made up for by the "Season of Giving" that we are in now. Last year the Fund was able to start the period of January to April with a decent balance as I headed into trial non-stop over that period and costs were high. That turned out to be a necessity as the inflow of contributions slowed dramatically during those months and the balance was exhausted.
We are in a similar situation now -- trying to build up a balance to get through the first four months of 2025. I'm not facing four straight months in trial again, but the Fund is now supporting five new clients taken on over the past few weeks since the Government increased the pace of new indictments and arrests. I expect my calendar of hearings and trials over the next 12 months is going to begin to fill up as these cases progress.
It is fair to say that I've developed my fair share of detractors online. If you are looking for criticism of me it is not hard to find. But that goes along with being a criminal defense attorney. My job is to tell my clients what they need to hear, and not just what they want to hear. That sometimes involves hard truths -- being honest with them about the evidence and the reality of what they are facing. Most are realistic, but some are not responsive and insist on going down paths with only bad outcomes.
The complainers tend to be those who ignored the advice, or had an outcome worse than expected. They tend to look for others to blame, and the attorney is always the easiest target. But that goes along with this line of work -- for some, it is always going to be someone else's fault that they are where they are.
Of the more than 45 clients who I have represented and who have been helped by the January 6 Legal Defense fund, only 6 have opted to replace me with another attorney at some point. One of those 6 chose to represent himself at trial, as he had done prior to my coming into his case. Another chose to take over his own defense mid-trial from the attorney who the Court appointed to replace me. As you might have guessed, the cases did not end well for either.
Significant events in all the cases, as well as the results of each case that has been completed, are posted on the GiveSendGo site for the Fund. Every client supported by the Fund is listed, along with their case numbers. Contributors can see exactly what is being done with their donations on behalf of the clients.
I've been able to do this work on behalf of more than 45 individuals only as a result of support from online contributors. I'll continue to take calls from desperate defendants and their family members as long as I don't go broke doing so. Hotels and airlines don't take IOUs, and neither do the electric company, gas stations and grocery stores where I live. The dog looks at me funny when there is no catfood in his bowl. So maintaining a positive fund balance is the one condition necessary for me to keep doing this work.
On this National Day of Giving, if you are looking for ways to support those in need, and you are troubled by the way the Department of Justice has pursued its handling of the January 6 investigation and prosecutions, your support would be greatly appreciated.

~William L. Shipley

This campaign is unpublished.

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