A major Hillary Clinton donor and trial lawyer is seeking to serve as his own co-attorney in a sweeping Deepwater Horizon fraud case, but federal prosecutors are fighting the proposal and claiming it would confuse jurors and muddy the trial.
Mikal Watts, a prominent Texas attorney who raised more than $100,000 for the pro-Clinton Super PAC Ready for Hillary in 2013, was charged in October with multiple counts of fraud and identity theft in connection to a class-action suit for victims of the 2010 BP oil spill.
According to federal authorities, Watts inflated his client list in the lawsuit against BP, falsely claiming to represent individuals who were non-existent, deceased, or had not been impacted by the oil spill in any discernable way.
Watts, a decorated trial lawyer, petitioned the court to allow for "hybrid representation" earlier this month, in which he would represent himself alongside top criminal defense attorney Robert McDuff.
The court rejected the motion, saying that although Watts had the right to represent himself there was no constitutional right for him to have co-counsel. The prosecution argued the arrangement could confuse jurors and intimidate witnesses while allowing Watts to speak before the court while he was not under oath.
Now Watts is asking to represent himself, with McDuff serving in a more limited capacity as his supporting counsel. On Monday, prosecutors again objected to the arrangement, calling it an "end-around" around the court’s previous decision.
Watts, who reportedly claimed to represent 44,000 victims of the oil spill, has been accused of padding his client list with phony identities in order to get a prime seat on the attorneys committee negotiating the class action. The committee secured a $2.3 billion settlement from BP in 2012.
The oil giant later sued Watts, alleging that he turned in just 648 claims for compensation, many of which did not meet the eligibility standards.
According to the federal indictment, other attorneys expressed concerns about Watts’s clients list before the BP settlement, noting that many of the birth dates and social security numbers did not match. The indictment also claims that some of the alleged clients had died before the oil spill took place, and one purported seafood vessel worker named "Lucy Lu" actually turned out to be a dog.
"[M]y own gut feeling it is a ‘king has no clothes’ cluster f*** that needs to be dealt with, openly, quickly and effectively," one unnamed attorney wrote to Watts in a January 2011 email.
According to the indictment, Watts appeared at one point to believe the problems would subside.
Right after BP agreed to a multi-billion-dollar settlement in March 2012, Watts allegedly emailed a group of colleagues, "To quote Monty Python, ‘it’s merely a flesh wound; I’m not dead yet!’ Mikal."
Watts has been a major fundraiser in Democratic circles, helping launch the political careers of Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro and former gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis.
The San Antonio Express-News recently described him as a "political sugar daddy who has put more than $7 million into the Democratic Party’s coffers over the years." Watts has hosted fundraisers for President Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.).
Watts hosted a fundraiser for Ready for Hillary in November 2013 that pulled in $100,000 for the pro-Clinton super PAC. Attendees included Craig Smith, a longtime aide and current adviser to Clinton’s 2016 campaign.