Former President Donald J. Trump has hired a high-profile lawyer to help him with the aftermath of the F.B.I. search of his club and home in Florida and the criminal investigation into his handling of sensitive government documents.
Former President Donald Trump reportedly hired one of his lawyers who's defending him in the Mar-A-Lago search after seeing him on television.
Mr Trump hired Drew Findling to represent him for a case regarding the former president’s attempts to interfere with the 2020 election results in Georgia. Mr Findling has represented hip-hop artists such as Cardi B, Gucci Mane and Migos, earning the moniker, “#BillionDollarLawyer”. In the past, Mr Findling criticised Mr Trump vocally on Twitter.
Several of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys have opened the White House up to yet another ethics minefield.
Roy CohnEducationColumbia University (BA, LLB)OccupationLawyerKnown forJulius and Ethel Rosenberg trial (1951) Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel (1953–1954) Donald Trump's attorney and mentor (1973–1985)Parent(s)Albert C. Cohn Dora Marcus4 more rows
List of White House counselOfficeholderTerm startPresidentEmmet Flood ActingOctober 18, 2018Donald TrumpPat CipolloneDecember 10, 2018Dana RemusJanuary 20, 2021Joe BidenStuart DeleryJuly 202243 more rows
However, when practising law, lawyers can only provide legal assistance, advice, and counselling to their clients while an attorney can represent clients in court and initiate defendant prosecutions in addition to providing legal counsel and consultation.
In all, 25 of the 44 men to hold the office of President have been lawyers. Before taking office, many other presidents previously served as soldiers, farmers, businessmen or teachers.
The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General's position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies.
He was a lawyer by trade and became Governor of Tennessee after his election in 1844. James Polk: He was a lawyer, surveyor and railroad worker He was the eleventh President of the United States....Office Hours.Monday24 hoursSaturday24 hoursSunday24 hours4 more rows
Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone (born May 6, 1966) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump....Pat CipolloneBornPasquale Anthony Cipollone May 6, 1966 New York City, New York, U.S.Political partyRepublicanSpouseRebecca ThelenChildren1011 more rows
Criminal Defense LawyersHe's a self-described “trial lawyer representing clients with charges ranging from minor offenses to multimillion dollar federal conspiracy cases.” Previously, Findling served as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and currently practices law out of his Atlanta-based boutique, Findling Law ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dershowitz controversially said in Trump’s defense on the Senate floor in January that “if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”.
Yet documentary evidence shows Giuliani enlisted Parnas and Fruman in Giuliani and Trump’s push to get Ukraine to investigate Biden (during this campaign, the Trump administration froze hundreds of millions in U.S. military aid, allegedly as leverage).
Impeachment is the legislative branch’s ultimate check on the executive. But it is rarely used and has few rules to govern it. More
Walt Shaub, a former director of the Office of Government Ethics , is similarly troubled by the lack of transparency around Giuliani’s work. “Given the reporting on his apparent role, he should have been appointed as a special government employee, which would have subjected him to conflict of interest laws and certain financial disclosure requirements,” Shaub, who is now at the nonprofit Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, told POGO. (In 2017, POGO wrote to then-White House Counsel Don McGahn recommending that presidential advisors, such as billionaire investor and former Trump advisor Carl Icahn, be made special government employees to make them subject to ethics laws and regulations.)
Indeed, there’s a strong argument that Giuliani’s Ukraine efforts led to impeachment, creating the biggest threat to Trump’s presidency to date. To recap in a handful of words what has been widely reported, Giuliani led a shadow diplomatic effort to pressure the government of Ukraine to launch and announce investigations involving Trump’s potential presidential opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Lev Parnas's notes from his conversation with Rudy Giuliani. (Source: House Intelligence Committee)
And Trump has failed to disclose the value of Giuliani’s “ gifts of legal defenses ,” as is legally required in his annual financial disclosures. (In 2018, POGO urged the Office of Government Ethics to review the omission and underreporting of Trump’s arrangement with Michael Cohen regarding Stormy Daniels and other services provided.)