Kushner hires big gun lawyer
ABBE Lowell’s clients have included some of the country’s most prominent politicians, companies and celebrities.
The latest addition to the US lawyer’s list: Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump.
In selecting Lowell to represent him in Russia-related investigations before Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller, Kushner has turned to one of the best-known trial lawyers in the nation’s capital and perhaps the country. Kushner has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and there’s no indication he’s at risk of being charged. But his pick of Lowell suggests he’s bracing for lengthy government probes and wants in his corner someone with decades worth of experience confronting thorny and contentious congressional and Justice Department investigations.
It also gives him a lawyer more seasoned in navigating Washington scandals than the members of Trump’s own legal team.
“I’d say a fire in the gut,” said Stan Brand, his friend and former law partner, when asked what separates Lowell from other successful lawyers.
Lowell is someone, he added, who the government knows is “going to go the distance” for his clients.
Kushner, who has indicated that he’s willing to co-operate with congressional and federal investigators, has been in the headlines amid reports that he discussed setting up a secret communications channel with the Russian government to facilitate sensitive discussions about the conflict in Syria. Lawmakers have already signalled their intent to question him over security clearance forms that omitted certain contacts with Russian government officials, something another one of his lawyers has characterised as an administrative error.
A Justice Department lawyer early in his career, Lowell has tried cases in more than a dozen states and over the years has expressed pride in more under-the-radar career experiences, such as successfully representing a real estate developer in the savings and loans era, and his work after the Rwandan civil war for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
But he’s best known as a fixture in Washington’s legal circles for his engagement in high-stakes criminal, civil and political disputes.
Among his most notable tasks was his 1998 representation of the House Democrats in the impeachment proceedings of Bill Clinton, where he emphatically argued that the president’s actions didn’t amount to impeachable offences. Since then, the clients he’s taken on include lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Goldman Sachs and even hip-hop star Sean “Diddy” Combs.
He worked to get charges dropped against former pro-Israel lobbyists who’d been accused of disclosing US secrets.
In a case set for trial this autumn, he’s representing Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey on charges that he accepted bribes from a Florida eye doctor, and long-time friend, in exchange for acting to advance his business interests. Lowell has publicly asserted the senator’s innocence, telling reporters after the 2015 indictment, “Prosecutors at the Justice Department often get it wrong. These charges are the latest instance of that.” He declined to comment for this story. Lowell’s involvement in Kushner’s legal team was confirmed this week by another of Kushner’s lawyers, Jamie Gorelick, who said she had encouraged Kushner to seek independent advice on whether he wanted to continue with her law firm, WilmerHale. Mueller, the former FBI director, worked at the firm until he was tapped as special counsel last month and he picked several partners for his team.
Lowell will become the public face of Kushner’s defence, a position he knows well. He said he adapts to the circumstances of every case in how he handles the press and the public. – ANA-AP