Trump has legal army on Russia inquiries
Personal attorneys ready to defend president and staff as case widens
They are attack dogs and upper- crust white shoes. None of them shrinks from a fight. And their ranks grow by the day.
Since Robert Mueller was named special counsel to head the Justice Department’s widening Russia investigation, President Trump and his administration began a hiring blitz of personal lawyers to shield them from possible exposure — as witnesses or subjects.
As the inquiry continues into possible links between Trump’s campaign and Russians who allegedly sought to influence the election by hacking Democrats, President Trump has assembled at least four outside attor--
neys, led by his longtime counsel Marc Kasowitz, who has represented Trump for 15 years on a range of private business matters.
Kasowitz’s unstinting defense of the real- estate- mogul- turned- president perhaps best reflects Trump’s own combative style. Kasowitz’s official biography attached to the New York firm bearing his name is chock full of superlatives, acclaiming him as “the toughest lawyer on Wall Street” and an “uber- litigator.”
Kasowitz’s team recently expanded to include Jay Sekulow, an advocate for the religious right, and John Dowd, a legal brawler who led Major League Baseball’s investigation that banned all- time hit king Pete Rose from the game.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a president so poorly and unfairly treated by the press,” Dowd said, explaining why he accepted Kasowitz’s invitation to join the team. “It’s a hate campaign. The hostility directed at the president and his family is ridiculous.”
Vice President Pence and Trump soninlaw and close adviser Jared Kushner also have lawyered up. So has the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
This month, Charles “Chuck’’ Cooper, a former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and a formidable advocate for myriad conservative causes, occupied a choice seat just over Sessions’ right shoulder as he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In what has become a near- full employment opportunity for the defense bar, even some of Trump’s lawyers have lawyers. Michael Cohen, another longtime Trump business attorney who is not part of the Russia team, recently hired former federal prosecutor Stephen Ryan after congressional investigators sought information from Cohen last month about possible contacts with Russia.
The Trump team expanded its constellation of legal expertise to keep pace not only with Mueller’s inquiry but with parallel investigations at least three congressional committees are pursuing, including the Senate and House intelligence panels and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which sought information and testimony related to alleged Russian interference in the elections, indicated it would cede investigative authority on the Russia matter to Mueller and the congressional inquiries.
The announcement by the panel’s new chairman, Trey Gowdy, R- S. C., has not slowed the assembly of legal teams across the administration. Nor have Trump’s repeated denials that any collusion took place and insistence that the special counsel investigation is a “witch hunt.”
Monday, Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general from the Clinton administration who represents White House adviser Kushner, announced the addition of legal heavyweight Abbe Lowell to assist Trump’s son- in- law.
Because Mueller had been a partner at Gorelick’s firm, WilmerHale, before his appointment as special counsel, Gorelick said she encouraged Kushner to “get independent legal advice on whether to continue with us as his counsel.” Kushner is under the scrutiny of federal investigators for his contacts with Russian officials.
Gorelick, who was a former member of the CIA’s national security advisory panel under President George W. Bush and a member of the 9/ 11 Commission formed after the terrorist attacks in 2001, said Kushner “engaged Abbe Lowell to advise him and then decided to add Mr. Lowell to the team representing him in the various inquiries into the Russia matter.”
( In the relatively small world of Washington lawyers, the WilmerHale connection has come up more than once: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose dealings and contacts with Russia are part of the Russia inquiry, also is represented by a Wilmer Hale attorney.)
Lowell, who served as chief minority counsel during the House impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, has represented a roster of public officials, including former senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards.
The largest group of outside lawyers has been assembled by the president, whose firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 revved up accusations of obstruction of justice. The revelation that Comey kept memos detailing his conversations with Trump, including an exchange in which the president allegedly pressed him to drop the inquiry into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, prompted the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s Russia legal team, said each lawyer brings something different to the table, from Sekulow’s expertise in constitutional law— he has appeared before the Supreme Court a dozen times — to Dowd’s extensive background in criminal law.
“First, it is important to have a highly skilled group of attorneys who have the complete trust of their client,” Corallo said. “There is a long relationship between President Trump and Marc Kasowitz that has been absolutely vital in forming the president’s team.”
Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, carved out a high- profile role more than a week ago when he made appearances on four separate Sunday television shows to rebut reports that Mueller was investigating possible obstruction by the president in the Russia probe.
Corallo described Sekulow — the host of his own radio show — as “very media savvy” and said he was likely to remain a public face of the team.
Michael Bowe, a partner in Kasowitz’s New York firm, has broad experience on white- collar matters and is described by the firm as the “consummate on- yourfeet courtroom lawyer.” He was part of the legal team that represented former accountants for singer Rihanna who were sued by the entertainer for malpractice.
Dowd, a blunt- spoken former Marine Corps captain, has represented a host of public figures, including Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., in a congressional ethics inquiry involving a banking scandal known as the “Keating Five” in the early 1990s. The senator was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Although the team has worked together for a relatively short time, Corallo said the members talk regularly via conference call and sometimes in person when Kasowitz and Bowe, both of New York, travel to Washington, where Dowd and Sekulow are based.
The Washington Post reported last week that Trump regularly consults with his attorneys in early morning rituals to vent, plot strategy or talk through the latest developments. Corallo said there are no “scheduled” calls, but “the president reaches out when he has a need.”
Trump has said that if he was asked, he would “100%” provide sworn testimony to managers of the investigations, but Corallo said no such requests had been made.
For other current and former administration officials, private counsels appear to have become the new normal.
“It’s very routine, very routine,” Pence said this month after acknowledging that he had retained Richard Cullen, former U. S. attorney who is chairman of Washington- based law firm McGuire Woods.
Cullen, who was a member of President Bush’s legal team for the 2000 election recount in Florida, specializes in criminal defense and his clients have included former Texas representative Tom DeLay and the ex- wife of golfer Tiger Woods.
Sessions, the nation’s top prosecutor, is among the most recent in the Trump administration to add the services of an outside attorney.
Cooper, a Sessions friend and former candidate to serve as U. S. solicitor general, confirmed last week that he represents the attorney general — but he declined further comment.