As the Russia probe gathers momentum, the White House shakes its defense Team by putting in place a veteran defense attorney in Washington, just as another senior lawyer assumes responsibility for representing a top official in a criminal investigation.
Tai Cob, who undertook several cases in the Washington scandals dating from the Clinton era will join the White House team at the end of July as a special legal counsel in charge of resolving all legal issues and the media, sources said.
The shake up in the legal team
However, Jamie Grayclick, a politically-related attorney representing Jared Kouchner, President Trump’s son-in-law, transfers all responsibility for Russia's probe into Abe Lowell, a prominent Washington defense lawyer.
For now, Gorelick will continue representing Kushner on ethical issues and for his security clearance, sources say. However, Lowell, an experienced litigator who served clients from former Sen. John Edwards to the corrupt Jack Abramoff, would represent solely Kushner in queries conducted by congressional panels and special counsel to the Justice Department Robert Muller.
Gorelick said the action was fueled by the fact that Muller was a partner at Wilmer Hale one of her law firms, and brought him another three partners to conduct the Russian probe.
Criticism of the White House
The legal steps come after the White House defense team faces growing criticism over allegations that it has messed up the president's defense.
Reporters said on Thursday evening that President Trump’s chief external lawyer Marc Kasowitz was told in June of the existence of emails indicating that Donald Trump Jr. had contact with a Kremlin lawyer in the hope of receiving information and documents that incriminate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Obviously collected by the Russian government.
Marc Kasowitz or other team members of the President's defense told their clients that the emails were not clarified; Trump informed reporters earlier this week that he only found out about the meeting just two days ago. However, Richard Painter, a former senior lawyer for President George W. Bush, said it was amazing that the lawyers of the president would not warn President Trump about the matter when they found out about them.
It is a professional duty to inform the clients of the information they need to make well informed and time tailored decisions, he stated.
There were other obstacles from Kasowitz. On Thursday, he apologized for sending masked and threatening emails to a foreigner who asked him to leave Trump.
