Trump's U.S. attorneys have been overwhelmingly white and male. During Trump's term, just seven U.S. attorneys named were women, including acting attorneys, and just one of his first 42 appointments was a woman. Only seven of 93 were people of color. ... Donald Q. Cochran: September 21, 2017 February 28, 2021
Lawyer Roy Cohn and Donald Trump at the opening of Manhattan’s Trump Tower, 1983. By Sonia Moskowitz.
Aug 13, 2021 · Ronald Fischetti, an 85-year-old white collar, criminal defense attorney, was the perfect person to represent Donald Trump in an investigation that's been approaching his company as if it were an...
Apr 20, 2016 · Roy Cohn, the lawyer who embraced infamy during the McCarthy hearings and Rosenberg trial, influenced Donald Trump to turn the tabloids into a soapbox From left: Roy Cohn, journalist Ed Kosner and...
It was 1980. I had been assigned to write a story on Donald Trump, the brash young developer who was then trying to make a name for himself in New York City, and I had come to see the man who, at the time, was in many ways Trump’s alter ego: the wily, menacing lawyer who had gained national renown, and enmity, for his ravenous anti-Communist grandstanding.
Trump was 34 and using the connections of his father, Brooklyn and Queens real-estate developer Fred Trump, as he navigated the rough-and-tumble world of political bosses. He had recently opened the Grand Hyatt Hotel, bringing life back to a dreary area near Grand Central Terminal during a period when the city had yet to fully recover from near bankruptcy. His wife, Ivana, led me through the construction site in a white wool Thierry Mugler jumpsuit. “When will it be finished? When?,” she shouted at workers as she clicked through in stiletto heels.
How to explain the symbiosis that existed between Roy Cohn and Donald Trump? Cohn and Trump were twinned by what drove them. They were both sons of powerful fathers, young men who had started their careers clouded by family scandal. Both had been private-school students from the boroughs who’d grown up with their noses pressed against the glass of dazzling Manhattan. Both squired attractive women around town. (Cohn would describe his close friend Barbara Walters, the TV newswoman, as his fiancée. “Of course, it was absurd,” Liz Smith said, “but Barbara put up with it.”)
And for whatever reason, he decided, according to journalist Wayne Barrett, to help the efforts of Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry, who was seeking an appointment to the federal bench. “Maryanne wanted the job,” Stone would recall. “She did not want Roy and Donald to do anything. She was attempting to get it on her own.”
For author Sam Roberts, the essence of Cohn’s influence on Trump was the triad: “Roy was a master of situational immorality . . . . He worked with a three-dimensional strategy, which was: 1. Never settle, never surrender. 2. Counter-attack, counter-sue immediately.
As Donald Trump would later tell the story, he ran into Cohn for the first time at Le Club, a members-only nightspot in Manhattan’s East 50s, where models and fashionistas and Eurotrash went to be seen.
And as Trump’s first major project, the Grand Hyatt, was set to open, he was already involved in multiple controversies.
In the 1980s, Fischetti and Pomerantz led law firms that made a mark in New York's criminal defense scene, defending drug dealers, businessmen, and mob figures alike.
Fischetti's most prominent case was his defense of Gambino mobster Gene Gotti, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
At around the same time, Fischetti and Pomerantz's firm participated in a failed effort to overturn an anti-money-laundering law that forces law firms to give information about their clients to the IRS.
A jury found Schwarz guilty of violating Louima's civil rights and obstructing justice, but an appeals court overturned the conviction - though Schwarz was later sentenced for committing perjury in testimony related to the case.
In fact, when news broke that Pomerantz joined the DA's team, Fischetti was among the first to sing his praises.
In the early 2000s, Fischetti grabbed headlines again while representing a former NYPD officer, Charles Schwarz, in a case where Schwarz and a partner were accused of torturing a Haitian man, Abner Louima, and telling him it was "Giuliani time."
Pomerantz also served several stints in high-profile positions at the US Justice Department that involved prosecuting mobsters and white collar criminals. At one point during the Obama administration, he was reportedly under consideration for the US attorney position in Manhattan.
A mentor in shamelessness: the man who taught Trump the power of publicity. Roy Cohn, the lawyer who embraced infamy during the McCarthy hearings and Rosenberg trial, influenced Donald Trump to turn the tabloids into a soapbox. From left: Roy Cohn, journalist Ed Kosner and Donald Trump. Photograph: Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images.
But once upon a time, he had a mentor: Roy Cohn, a notoriously harsh lawyer who rose to prominence in the mid-1950s alongside the communist-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. His tactics would often land him in the papers, but Cohn was unafraid of being slimed by the press – he used it to his advantage.
Cohn started his career as a federal prosecutor, but it was his performance in the trial of the Rosenbergs – who were tried and convicted of espionage in 1951 – where he made his real reputation. According to David Greenglass, Cohn pressured him into testifying against his sister Ethel.
In an interview with 60 Minutes in 2003, Greenglass admitted he’d lied on the stand. He testified his sister typed notes sent on to the Soviets, but in fact she hadn’t. He also said that Cohn was the one who’d pushed him to incriminate Ethel. Greenglass’s testimony led to his sister’s execution.
Cohn eventually resigned, but he always defended the hearings, once writing an article for Esquire titled, “Believe Me, This Is the Truth About the Army-McCarthy Hearings, Honest”. This piece was widely acknowledged to stretch the truth; letters of complaint poured in.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg during their trial for espionage in New York in 1951. Photograph: AP. Along with his fellow committee member David Schine, he embarked on a kind of European tour, with the mission to root out communists abroad. Cohn and Schine proceeded to make giant fools of themselves in the press.
He testified his sister typed notes sent on to the Soviets, but in fact she hadn’t. He also said that Cohn was the one who’d pushed him to incriminate Ethel. Greenglass’s testimony led to his sister’s execution.
Richard Cullen: The vice president hired outside legal counsel about a month after Trump hired his own private lawyer to deal with the Russia probe. Cullen worked for President George W. Bush during the 2000 Florida recount and has represented GOP Majority Leader Tom Delay as well as Tiger Woods ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, during the couple’s divorce.
Chuck Cooper: The country’s top law enforcement officer hired his own private lawyer — a friend who helped him prepare for his Senate confirmation hearings — shortly after Vice President Mike Pence did. Cooper, a founding member of the Washington law firm Cooper & Kirk who once clerked for late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, had been under consideration to be the next solicitor general but withdrew his name after Sessions’ contentious confirmation hearings. Sessions has denied any collusion with Moscow, but has come under fire for not disclosing at least two meetings he had with a Russian official during the 2016 campaign.
Futerfas made his name as a defense attorney by successfully representing mobsters in New York City. He later expanded to defending corporate and white collar crimes, and more recently cyber crimes. In 2016, he defended a Russian man who was convicted in the U.S. of creating computer malware. Federal Election Commission records filed last month show Trump's re-election campaign began paying Futerfas' law firm more than a week before the June 2016 meeting became public.
Abbe Lowell: The experienced defense attorney has defended Democratic politicians like John Edwards and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. He also served as chief minority counsel to the Democrats during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment process. Now he is representing the president's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, whose meetings with the Russian ambassador and a Russian banker last year have come under scrutiny.
Andrew Rafferty. Andrew Rafferty has been a political reporter for NBCNews.com since 2013. Rafferty writes and reports on politics for the web, and shoots and produces video for all NBC platforms. Prior to joining NBCNews.com, Rafferty was a campaign reporter covering the 2012 presidential election.
In their 1982 lawsuits, the tenants said Trump had cut off their hot water and heat during New York's freezing winters and stopped all building repairs. One claimed he allowed "a rodent infestation of the premises." Another said he imposed burdensome new rules in an attempt to force them out.
The renters hired a real estate lawyer known in New York City for being particularly aggressive. They sued Trump and his company, Park South Associates. CNNMoney identified at least two instances in which New York state judges stepped in to put Trump's lease violation notices on hold.
Trump said he couldn't fix the building's heating system, because Meyer didn't give construction workers access to her apartment. Fellow tenants told Meyer to back down. Meyer's lawsuit fizzled out when her own attorney left her.
But Trump used that opportunity to accuse the renters of shady behavior: using lawsuits of harassment to cover up their real mission.
His plan was to tear down the building and replace it with luxury condos. But first he needed a small band of rent-stabilized tenants out of there. To succeed, Trump played rough, according to lawsuits filed by the tenants. Renters said he cut heat and hot water, and he imposed tough building rules.
In his book, The Art of the Deal, Trump himself said he chose a company that "specialized in relocating tenants.". Just a few months later, on New Year's Eve, several tenants received identical "lease violation" warning letters.
By 1981, Trump was already the epitome of American business bravado. At 35 years old, he had cut historic multi-million dollar land deals, saved a blighted midtown Manhattan subway hub, and was in the process of erecting the black-framed glass behemoth of Trump Tower.
Taylor contacted officials at the FBI’s Newark and Atlantic City offices to hammer out the “undercover proposal” for the Trump casino. That proposal was “in a thoroughly finished state,” the memo said, and Trump and the special agents in charge of the New York and Newark field offices were scheduled to discuss it on Oct. 1, 1981.
A couple of months later, in June 1981, Taylor and the second agent met with Trump and his younger brother, Robert. Donald Trump told the agents he had decided to follow through with the casino project and offered to “fully cooperate” with the FBI “during the construction phase and subsequently once the casino was operational.”
Trump told Taylor and a second agent that if he decided to build the casino he wanted to “cooperate” with the FBI. The agents, who cautioned Trump about his casino plans, said they would revisit their discussion if he decided to break ground. Taylor later spoke with FBI higher-ups about Trump’s offer.
The memo, portraying a series of early meetings between Trump and the FBI, may provide important clues about the nature of the relationship between the future president-elect and the country’s largest law enforcement agency.
Trump’s Long History With The FBI: In 1981, He Offered To “Fully Cooperate”. After the president-elect met with FBI agents, they finalized an “undercover proposal” to take to their superiors. It’s not known what action, if any, the bureau took on that proposal. Last updated on June 13, 2021, at 1:33 p.m. ET. Posted on January 19, 2017, ...
Reporters from the website were interested in an FBI informant, Daniel Sullivan, who had close ties to the Mafia. According to the memo, Sullivan was employed by the Trump Organization as a “labor consultant.”. He also was a co-owner of the the plot of land in Atlantic City where Trump would build his casino.
Emma Best , an independent researcher, flagged the overlooked portions of the FBI memo to BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed News Reporter Ali Watkins contributed to this report.
As a top lawyer for the Trump campaign, Cannon was tasked with the unwinding of the 2020 Trump reelection operation. He is likely to figure prominently in preparations for a possible 2024 Trump presidential campaign, which Trump has increasingly teased in public remarks since leaving the White House.
Sekulow played a leading role defending Trump during his first impeachment trial and remains a key figure in Trump's post-presidency orbit of lawyers.
Ahead of Trump's second impeachment, over remarks that were seen as inciting a violent mob to storm the Capitol, Sekulow warned that it would be a "gigantic mistake" to seek Trump's removal and disbarment from holding future office.
Herschmann advocated against the first impeachment of Trump before joining the White House as a senior advisor later in 2020.
The ruling left both sides unsatisfied, prompting House Democrats and Trump's legal teams to challenge the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Now Futerfas is defending the Trump Organization as it faces tax-fraud charges. Prosecutors in Manhattan have accused the Trump Organization of giving Weisselberg, the longtime executive, more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation.
Weisselberg, represented by the criminal-defense lawyer Mary Mulligan, has also denied wrongdoing.