Don McGahn (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) & Reince Priebus (Photo by CPAC 2017 by Michael Vadon)
Sometimes it feels like the biggest contribution of the Trump regime is gainful employment for white-collar defense attorneys. It seems everyone associated with Donald Trump and his campaign has a need for their own lawyer. Think about it: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has hired Chuck Cooper of Cooper & Kirk; Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen hired McDermott Will & Emery partner Stephen Ryan; Donald Trump Jr. hired criminal defense attorney Alan Futerfas; Mike Pence hired McGuireWoods’s Richard Cullen; Jared Kushner hired WilmerHale’s Jamie Gorelick and Norton Rose Fulbright’s Abbe Lowell; campaign advisor Roger Stone hired Robert Buschel; former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn hired Covington & Burling’s Robert Kelner; Paul Manafort hired WilmerHale’s Reginald Brown and Miller & Chevalier’s Kevin Downing; White House communications director Hope Hicks hired Trout Cacheris & Janis’s Robert Trout — hell, there’s even talk about setting up a legal defense fund for White House staffers.
Everyone — even lawyers — need lawyers, especially when you are working for, or have formerly worked for, a fledgling administration that is under investigation. Now Law360 is reporting that White House Counsel Don McGahn and Reince Priebus (who got his JD from the University of Miami) have hired Quinn Emanuel partner William Burck to advise them on Robert Mueller’s investigation. It is interesting that McGahn, formerly a partner at Jones Day and Patton Boggs, went to Quinn for his lawyering needs.
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It’s been reported that the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller is expect to include interviews with both McGahn and Priebus, which likely spurred the move, though the anticipated content of the interviews is different. As Law360 notes, McGahn is facing questions about the firing of James Comey:
McGahn is expected to be asked what he knew about why President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey in May, as part of Mueller’s widely reported investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice in firing the official leading an investigation into his campaign, according to the person familiar with the hiring. McGahn is more likely to be interviewed as a witness rather than a party to Trump’s potential obstruction, the person said.
While Priebus will talk about the Trump campaign’s infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer:
Priebus is expected to be questioned about his potential knowledge of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting at Trump Tower last June with a Russian lawyer.
Trump Jr. confirmed that meeting in July, posting an email exchange that showed him agreeing to meet with a “Russian government attorney” for potentially damaging information about his father’s election rival, Hillary Clinton.
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The legal maneuvers have been noted by former Acting Solicitor General of the United States and current Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal, who sees this as a bad sign for the administration:
Always a bad sign when the top WH lawyer has to hire his own lawyer. https://t.co/A1ydqIk4K4
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) September 10, 2017
With the Mueller investigation ramping up, this doesn’t feel like the end of the job windfall for big-name, white-collar criminal defense attorneys.
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).