YouSaid · the spoken record

Abbe Lowell

lines on the record: 68
first: 2026-02-09
most recent: 2026-02-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And so I never heard back from Todd. Then the awful events in Minneapolis happened again in the killing of Alex Preddy. And I don't know that I thought that them going after Don Lemon was their highest priority. Right. I should have known better because what we know about this administration is they're very good at basically saying if this is my right hand, pay attention to it while I do something with my left. They are the administration of distraction. So again, I wasn't terribly concerned and you said you had a premonition.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Way there's no reason to do it in an extraordinary way to make a public spectacle of it. Let us know what you're doing and I'll make arrangements. I have done that dozens of times in my career, and especially if you're not representing somebody who's, for example, a real flight risk or somebody who is being accused of being a serial killer, they normally will let you do that, right? Unless they're trying to make a show of it. And what we know about this administration is show first substance second.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Almost immediately from the top down being Attorney General Bondi and the Assistant Attorney General Dylan from the Civil Rights Division and who else knows in the administration started not just saying that this was an outrage, that people would walk into a house of worship and basically protest, but that Don and other journalists there was one other independent named Georgia Fort that was there were not just journalists, but they were activists doing it. And they said they need to be arrested. They need to be charged. So Don and I were connected as soon as that happened. It was probably the very day. And I started understanding what was going on. And the very first thing I did was I wrote Deputy Attorney General Dodd Blanche, who I've known and practiced for years. And I said to him in words and effect, I want you to know, Todd, I represent Don Lemon. I understand you're investigating, or at least that's what's being announced. If you are, you should be in contact. We should do this the right way.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So you'll remember these events started on that Sunday the 18th where Don and others were in Minneapolis to cover the protests. There was this group that he got connected with that were heading to a protest. He's a journalist. He'll cover a group that's going to protest wherever they go. This group went to a church. He filmed it. He interviewed people there. The event happened. It was done. I think he was in Minneapolis for five or six hours. Yeah.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What is not being well reported is that all those, think about this, let's say I'm going to make it up. Let's say there are 500 law firms in America. And let's say they all have 100 lawyers. And let's say that each of those lawyers do 50 hours of pro bono work a year. Think about the tens of thousands of hours and law firms have cut back on that. And that is a gap that has not been filled.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You've heard that some law firms went and made deals, right? Okay, we get that, and we know that some, a handful, said, no, we're fighting back. What people aren't recognizing is that almost every big firm in America used to do this vast amount of what's called pro bono work for community agencies, social service agencies, nonprofits, whether it was in the immigration world or the women reproductive rights world or the environmental world or any other world in which lawyers did their work for free.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think they were super surprised given that there had been these events where I kept pressing them to do things. I think that was first. I think they were shocked that I said we had to do it in 36 hours, and it turned out to be like 48 hours. And I think ultimately, I mean, look, it was amicable in the way that I, and I understand. I understand what the big law firms vulnerabilities are. I'm not happy about it. I don't agree with it. I think the law firms could have banded together day one and said, we're not going in that direction. Absolutely. I think that was a lack of leadership across the board of lawyers in America. I understand it, but I don't agree with it. So I don't think they were shocked. And as I said, under the circumstances, it was amicable, although I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed in them. I'm disappointed in lawyers across America. And I'll tell you where I'm really disappointed.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, yeah, the downside was on Friday I decided to do this. I needed to write a letter on behalf of Attorney General James by Tuesday. And that meant between the weekend and Tuesday, the downside was I had to find my lawyer to incorporate me. I had to go find malpractice insurance. I had to design my own letterhead. I had to borrow office space. I had to do all the above in 72 hours, which normally law firms require their partners to give them notice and get out 30 days. I gave them less than three days. The downside was just the logistics of starting a new business in 2025 America, everything from finding space to finding colleagues to being able to get a computer. Remember, when I left Winston and Strawn that weekend, I was off their grid. My laptop turned into a brick, 45 boxes of files were left behind, and I left the building. And so that was the immediate challenge.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so that was the moment that I told the firm this was not going to work. And over that weekend, that's where it happened.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, that was one. Shortly thereafter, I got contacted by a friend who worked for the USAID workers that had been stranded abroad. If you remember when that agency was taken down, many people were left literally stranded. And again, the intake committee said, we don't want to ruffle the feathers on that one. And then there was another one in between that doesn't matter. But the straw that broke the camels back for me was when New York State Attorney General, Latisha James, called, and she and I met two days later in her office. It was exactly what I do for a living to help people in her situation. And at that point, I knew the firm was going to not say yes, because after all, Letitia James was the person who successfully sued and got a judgment for fraud against Donald Trump and his businesses.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now, with that background, I can tell you about 2025. In the beginning of 2025, as it would have been in any other year, various clients came and asked if I could help. The first was the FBI agents who did not want”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so in my career, I have always challenged the overreach of administrations all the way back to Ronald Reagan's where I sued the Federal Aviation Administration on behalf of the localities in Washington when they wanted to change the flight paths at National Airport. I mean, the difference between my career up until 2025 and 2025 is that the government might overreach a couple of times a year and then you would represent your clients, right? Now the government overreaches a couple of times a week. And so there's many more things to be done. So that's the reason that I would be in a position when the moment came to try to meet that moment because it's why I became a lawyer to begin with.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And therefore, you better watch out what you say and what you do. This is the combination. Affirms are more and more worried about the bottom line driven by their corporate clients, and corporate clients are afraid of going against the government and the government is willing to use its power to stifle speech, to stifle freedom, to basically stifle all the things guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. That's the storm that's created this moment.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so there's two parts to this equation. There was a time where firms like Paul Weiss was known as a litigation firm. They would have institutional clients, but mostly people hired them to do their battles one at a time. You might represent a client once and ever see them again. When you start getting institutional clients for whom you are both asking for and getting business on both sides, the litigation and the business side, that's where the business side gets to predominate and says, we need this license, we need this permission, don't make waves. But more than 50% of the equation, Kara is not on the law firm side, it's on the government side. It's that in the history of our country, there's never been a president or those carrying out his commands that will do what these law firms are afraid of. That will say, I am not approving your merger, Disney or whoever, because if you are criticizing me, I'm using my power as a weapon.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If these corporate clients have, as they often will, the need to get permission, license, something from a government entity, be it the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, then their clients who fuel their revenue are going to say, don't make waves. And if a firm is dedicated, or at least they think they're dedicated, solely to the bottom line, and their majority of their clients are telling them, you've got to keep a low profile, that's the thing that's motivating these firms the most. Right. It's unfortunate because it basically reflects that over the last 25, 30, 40 years, law firms stop being professions and started being businesses. And that's not the way it should have been. And it's even not the way the founders envisioned it when our country began.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's talk about the big firm problem to start with. At some point over the last, you could name it 15, 20, 25 years. Most big law firms have become more and more reliant on their corporate clients, whether it's for corporate work or even litigation work.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is administration that's not just willing to trample on the Bill of Rights. They're eager to do it. It's a warning sign. And if we can't rely on those Bill of Rights to protect you and Don and others who give us the news or lawyers who come up and defend you when you do that, then we're in a lot more trouble that the average person believes.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Every day, something happens. If you had asked me a week ago how it's going, I wouldn't have known that I had to figure out a way to get Don Lemon out of jail the next day.”
2026-02-09 · On with Kara Swisher · Defending Trump’s ‘Enemies’ with Attorney Abbe Lowell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT