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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's a Small World of Trump Lawyers By Josh Marshall
By Josh Marshall | May 19, 2018 2:33 pm
Lawyers represent many different clients. Theres a limit on how much we can infer from these relationships. But it is striking how many lawyers with extremely close ties to the Trump family, often longtime lawyers for President Trump himself, are also currently representing various foreign interests who the Special Counsel is now investigating in its probe. What Im about to describe involves a slightly different set of people. But it is similar and to me quite notable. It comes from this new blockbuster Times article revealing offers of help from a group of Gulf princes which Donald Trump, Jr. apparently eagerly embraced.
Lets put a pin in that larger story for a moment. Well return to it. One of the major players in this is Joel Zamel, an Israeli social media expert who has a company that runs social media psy-ops campaigns quite similar to the effort Russia mounted on Trumps behalf in the 2016 campaign. The possibility of his doing that on Trumps behalf came up in these newly revealed meetings. Zamel also has close business ties to a number of key Russian oligarchs who he has frequently worked with. One of them is Oleg Deripaska, the guy Paul Manafort owed all the money to. Needless to say Bob Muellers investigators seem highly interested in all of this.
Again, lets put a pin in that larger set of connections. The Times notes that Zamel is represented by a man named Marc L. Mukasey. You may recognize the name because hes the son of the former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. For our present purposes what is important is that Mukasey has been the deputy and the law partner of Rudy Giuliani for years. Partnerships are big. You can be the law partner of lots of different people. This is different. Theyve been like a team for many years first at Bracewell Giuliani and then together again at Greenberg Taurig. Indeed, when Giuliani came onboard with President Trump, Mukasey was in discussions to join President Trumps team. That was just a couple weeks ago! Now, one might say to all this, people represent lots of different people. As long as youre clear with all involved about whether there are any conflicts, its not necessarily a problem. Thats true as far as it goes. But a lot of these relationships are very close, very incestuous.
Heres another example. Marc Kasowitz, President Trumps longtime attorney, represented Trump in the Russia probe for a significant portion of last year and has been consulting with the President in recent works also represented the US affiliate of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Thats the outfit that paid $500,000 to Michael Cohen.
Again, lawyers work for lots of different clients. They sometimes appear to connect up weird combinations of people through different people they represent. All of thats true. But there are lots of examples of Trump lawyers and people tight in Trumps orbit representing people on the other side of these collusion investigations. Its odd.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/its-a-small-world-of-trump-lawyers