Duke Cunningham's lawyers say goodbye

We have learned a lot about federal inmate Randy "Duke" Cunningham (and his erectile dysfunction) this week. We're still hungry for more, but new documents filed in federal court this week show that his lawyers have had their fill. 

One of the former Congressman's defense attorneys, Mark Holscher, filed a motion on Monday to have his firm, Kirkland & Ellis, officially removed from the case because of a "breakdown of communication." Judge Larry Burns signed the order the next day.

"Without discussing privileged communications, Kirkland & Ellis LLP represents to the Court that a number of months ago it reached an impasse with Defendant that makes continued representation untenable, extremely burdensome and difficult," Holscher writes in his declaration to the court. "Defendant will not be prejudiced by the withdrawal of Kirkland & Ellis LLP as his counsel of record because he has already been convicted and the time for appeal has passed."

In recent months, Cunningham has begun speaking out about what he describes as poor advice from his attorneys to plead guilty in the 2006 corruption case, which may explain the development.

This week, Cunningham further expounded on his difficulties with his attorneys in a 10-page document titled "The Untold Story of Duke Cunningham," which we published yesterday. Cunningham says that when he signed the plea agreement he was a "walking skeleton," emaciated and medically sedated, who had to be helped to the conference table by Holscher and co-counsel Lee Blalack. He writes:

"A third time I told my lawyers, I will not sign a plea agreement that say I am guilt of things I did not do. Then Lee said, 'Duke, they will go after your wife and children." Upon learning that I could hardly hold my head up and asked my lawyers, 'You mean you want me to sign a document under oath that is 90 to 95% untrue?'

"Lee responded, 'We are here to give you the best advice as your lawyers, and that advice is to sign.' I said, 'If you can get the bastards to not go after my wife - I will sign. My lawyers then left the conference room for a time. When they returned, I signed the Plea Agreement..."

In November 2010, the San Diego Union-Tribune scored an exclusive jailhouse interview with Cunningham that previewed many of the claims Cunningham has now put on paper. At the time, reporter Greg Moran reported that Holsher and  Blalack were no longer representing Cunningham; in a message today, Moran tells CityBeat that he knew this to be true for Blalack but he mistakenly applied it to Holscher.

Writer's Note: Having heard directly from Moran, I have edited that last paragraph for clarity.