Robert “Joe” Halderman, that guy who tried to extort $2 million from David Letterman, has pulled in around $50,000 in donations from friends and co-workers to help him foot his $200,000 legal bill.

Sources say that Joe’s friends and colleagues believe that he’s innocent.

In related news, Joe’s lawyer Gerald Shargel filed papers in court today, asking for the judge to dismiss the entire case. Here’s Gerald’s written legal statement:

The sensationalism surrounding this indictment, fueled by the celebrity of the purported victim and the deference paid to that celebrity by the District Attorney’s Office, has swallowed the only pertinent issue.

Gerald added that Joe was doing the women at David’s workplace a favor by exposing the “environment of workplace sexual misconduct” that he was creating. He was simply trying to making a “pure commercial transaction” with the information that he had.