Marc E. Kasowitz, a New York civil litigator who represented President Donald J. Trump for 15 years in business and boasts of being called the toughest lawyer on Wall Street, has suddenly become the field marshal for a White House under siege.
He is a personal lawyer for the president, not a government employee, but he has been talking about establishing an office in the White House complex where he can run his legal defense.
His visits to the White House have raised questions about the blurry line between public and private interests for a president facing legal issues.
In recent days Kasowitz has advised White House aides to discuss the inquiry into Russia’s interference in last year’s election as little as possible, two people involved said. He told aides gathered in one meeting who had asked whether it was time to hire private lawyers that it was not yet necessary, according to another person with direct knowledge.
Such conversations between a private lawyer for the president and the government employees who work for his client are highly unusual, according to veterans of previous administrations.
Kasowitz bypassed the White House Counsel’s Office in having these discussions, according to one person familiar with the talks, who like others requested anonymity to discuss internal matters. And concerns about Kasowitz’s role led at least two prominent Washington lawyers to turn down offers to join the White House staff.
“The president’s private lawyer is representing only his interests, not the interests of the United States government or the individual interests of the White House staff,” said Robert F. Bauer, who was White House counsel under President Barack Obama.
The administration referred questions to Kasowitz. A spokesman for Kasowitz called the characterizations of his conversations with staff members “inaccurate”, but would not specify how. “The lawyers don’t disclose conversations they have had with anyone,” Mark Corallo, the spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. “Of course, people are free to hire a lawyer or talk to anyone they want.”
Kasowitz is not the first personal lawyer to represent a president facing legal issues. President Bill Clinton retained Robert S. Bennett to defend him in a sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, and David E. Kendall and Nicole K. Seligman to represent him in the Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky investigations.
The line between government lawyers representing the administration and private lawyers representing the president was always somewhat vague. But one important difference was that the president’s conversations with private lawyers were protected by attorney-client privilege, while those with his White House lawyers were not.
To many Washington hands, Kasowitz, 64—who represented Trump during his Atlantic City casino financial troubles and represents other clients like Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox News host—seems an unusual choice for the mission. While he is widely respected as a fierce and successful lawyer, he has little experience in high-profile criminal cases or politically charged Washington investigations.
Kasowitz has been central to Trump’s recent legal battles, helping his client keep divorce records sealed and representing him in the Trump University fraud lawsuit, in which Trump ultimately agreed to pay $25 million to settle claims from former students that the institution had cheated them out of tuition money.
In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Kasowitz threatened to sue The New York Times for libel on Trump’s behalf over a story in which two women accused Trump of inappropriate touching years earlier. No lawsuit has been filed.
A decade earlier, however, Kasowitz followed through on a similar threat, suing Timothy O’Brien, a Trump biographer and former reporter and editor for The Times, for libel and alleging that he had understated Trump’s net worth. That suit was dismissed by a New Jersey Superior Court judge.
Also raising eyebrows are two of Kasowitz’s other clients—Sberbank, the largest state-owned bank in Russia, on which the Obama administration imposed sanctions, and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian tycoon who is close to President Vladimir Putin and had business dealings with Paul Manafort, once Trump’s campaign chairman.
While Trump is not known to be under investigation over potential collusion with Russia, the special counsel leading the Russia inquiry, Robert S. Mueller III, has the authority to investigate obstruction of justice.
Some in Congress have said that Trump’s firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey coupled with his own statements about Comey, could be seen as evidence of attempted obstruction of justice.
Whether Kasowitz is having an effect on his client is unclear. He advised Trump to ease up on his use of Twitter, and when Trump’s account was quiet for nearly 48 hours last week around the time of Comey’s Senate hearing, some speculated that Kasowitz was responsible. But Trump began attacking Comey’s testimony last Friday morning, and he has defiantly told friends that despite his lawyer’s instructions, he has not changed his behavior.
Image credits: Justin T. Gellerson/The New York Times