Trump's lawyer in Russia probe has clients with Kremlin ties

[DonViejo]

By Shawn Boburg June 9 at 9:31 PM

The hard-charging New York lawyer President Trump chose to represent him in the Russia investigation has prominent clients with ties to the Kremlin, a striking pick for a president trying to escape the persistent cloud that has trailed his administration.

Marc E. Kasowitz’s clients include Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin and has done business with Trump’s former campaign manager. Kasowitz also represents Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, U.S. court records show.

Kasowitz has represented one of Deripaska’s companies for years in a civil lawsuit in New York and was scheduled to argue on the company’s behalf May 25, two days after news broke that Trump had hired him, court records show. A different lawyer in Kasowitz’s firm showed up in court instead, avoiding a scenario that would have highlighted Kasowitz’s extensive work for high-profile Russian clients.

Kasowitz, whose scrappy style in the courtroom mirrors Trump’s approach to politics, represented Trump in various matters for more than a decade before he took on either Deripaska’s company or Sberbank, according to one of Kasowitz’s partners in the firm.

Trump has turned to Kasowitz for matters that include debt restructuring and suing an author who Trump said undercounted his net worth. On Thursday, Kasowitz became the public face of Trump’s counterattack on former FBI director James B. Comey, challenging the former federal prosecutor’s credibility and calling for Comey to be investigated for leaks after his testimony to Congress.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trumps-lawyer-in-russia-probe-has-clients-with-kremlin-ties/2017/06/09/5dba9518-4d4a-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html

[MagickMuffin]

1. Russia, Russia, Russia

The whole lot of them are connected to Russia!

It's too bad that Kasowitz got tagged before he had the chance to defend his Russian client in court. That would have gotten some attention. Good on the WaPo for digging this up.

[wiggs]

2. His job is to limit the discussion to obstruction, and to protect all involved from

pathways that would lead to discussion of money laundering, collusion, compromat, shady loans, election tampering, Russian investments in the US, Trump financial ties to Russia, Flynn, Page, Manafort, etc

obstruction is in the news...but the rest is much more important.