CLEARING THE AIR
Business is business. Former U. S. Attorney Dan K. Webb, who is now arguably one of the most soughtafter trial attorneys in the United States, wants to make things perfectly clear.
Webb, a die- hard Republican who helped raise cash for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, insists he did not turn down a recent invitation to become part of President Donald Trump’s legal team because he had been a very vocal supporter of Clinton’s.
“I was truly and deeply honored by the [ Trump] request and wanted to do it,” Webb told Sneed in a late- night conversation Monday following news he and Tom
Buchanan— a managing partner at Winston & Strawn’s Washington, D. C., offices— had declined Trump’s invitation.
“It had nothing to do with my support for Hillary Clinton,” Webb said.
A statement released late Monday by Webb’s law firm cited “business conflicts” as a reason he and Buchanan declined the Trump invitation.
“I am now on trial in San Diego on a very complicated case,” he said.
A top source tells Sneed Trump’s attorney Ty Cobb reached out to Webb and Buchanan and that Trump was fully aware of Webb’s vocal support of Clinton’s presidency, yet wanted him anyway.
Sneed exclusively tipped in 2016 that Webb was helping raise cash for Clinton’s campaign; had told Sneed he had never voted for a Democrat for president; and was helping plan a Lawyers for Hillary Chicago event.
“If Trump gets elected, this country will be destroyed,” Webb trumpeted back then.
Webb’s invite to join the Trump team came amid a major shake- up of the president’s dwindling legal team and the recent resignation of attorney John Dowd as the lead attorney on the Russian probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Webb is also the attorney for Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash, who has been wanted by the Chicago feds as the alleged mastermind of an international titanium racket— and fighting extradition from Vienna for the past four years.
“Yes, I will be representing Firtash here if he gets extradited,” said Webb, who also put the kibosh on that being a potential conflict of interest. ( It’s been reported Firtash has had past ties to Trump’s indicted former campaign manager Paul Manafort.) “That’s it, Mike,” Webb said. “I have no further comment,” he added.
The Peterson file . . .
Say whaaaa?
Joel Brodsky, once an attorney for convicted wife murderer Drew
Peterson— who was found guilty of killing his third wife, Kathleen
Savio— is a man of many words. Some of them shocking. In an upcoming Discovery ID/ First 48 hours segment this week narrated by O. J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark, Brodsky tells Sneed he talked about Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy, who went missing after Savio was killed.
“When they asked me where I thought Stacy was, I told them I didn’t have to think. I knew. But I couldn’t think of a way to answer that question without violating attorney- client privilege,” Brodsky told Sneed.
“When they asked me if I thought Stacy would ever be found, I said: ‘ After Drew dies, I think she will be.’ ” Dead or elsewhere? “I can’t say either way,” Brodsky said. Thanks for letting me know, Joe! So how’s that for keeping the Peterson story line going?
The Peterson file II . . .
Sneed hears rumbles Stacy’s sister, Cassandra Cales, who has been desperately searching for her missing sister since her disappearance in 2007, is once again talking to sonar divers in Texas and still hoping to find a way to pay for it. Cales thinks her sister’s body is in the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Sneedlings . . .
Today’s birthdays: Lady Gaga, 32; Vince Vaughn, 48; Reba McEntire, 63, and Ken’s beloved mom, Jeanne Velo, 100.