‘You’re fired’: Louise Mensch ditches her lawyer… on Twitter

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By CJ McKinney on

A very public spat

Ex-MP and journalist Louise Mensch

Former Conservative MP turned investigative journalist Louise Mensch appears to have dropped her pro bono lawyer in an extraordinary Twitter row.

High-profile attorney Mark S. Zaid had been representing Mensch in a freedom of information lawsuit. The pair wanted details of government investigations into Russian interference in the US presidential election, according to Washington insiders’ bible The Hill.

Last night Zaid got into what seemed like a routine Twitter disagreement (embedded below) with Evan McMullin, who came to prominence in 2016 when he ran as an independent candidate against Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Linking to a New York Times article about fake Russian Facebook accounts, McMullin tweeted:

Zaid hit back:

Prompting this reply from McMullin:

Responding, the experienced lawyer branded the former presidential candidate “pathetic”:

So far, so Twitter, you might think. But it looks like Mensch has taken exception to her lawyer’s debating style:

And Washington-based Zaid seemed happy to be shot of his outspoken client.

Following the spat, Zaid quickly filed a notice with the US District Court of the District of Columbia removing Mensch as his client. According to US website The Daily Caller, it said:

The undersigned counsel hereby notifies this Court that Plaintiff Louise Mensch has terminated their legal representation effective immediately.

This isn’t first time Zaid and Mensch have clashed over Twitter. Earlier this year, Zaid publicly questioned a Mensch story claiming that a “sealed indictment” has been granted against President of the United States Donald Trump.

Mensch, who quit as MP for Corby to move Stateside in 2012, has been accused by the Guardian of endorsing “fake details of criminal inquiries into Trump”, but has hit back in a blog post defending her coverage as based on independent sources.

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