Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for US President Donald Trump, is leaving the Manhattan Federal Courthouse, following a ruling by a judge to allow Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. to provide financial records to investigators, in New York City, USA, on May 22nd. 2019.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Rep. Matt Gaetz has hired two top defense attorneys in New York – one of whom is currently representing the Trump organization in an ongoing criminal investigation – to represent him as the Republican in Florida ahead of a federal investigation into sex trafficking.
The retention of the Trump firm’s lawyer, Marc Mukasey, is notable not only for Mukasey’s record of handling serious criminal cases, but also because former president Donald Trump counted Gaetz as one of his most ardent defenders.
Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, was also a patron of Trump’s personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Isabelle Kirshner joins Mukasey to represent Gaetz in the criminal investigation.
Gaetz, who has not been prosecuted, has also hired a liaison firm, the Washington-based Logan Circle Group, to manage what condemned the media scandal after news of the federal investigation broke for the first time in The New York Times last week. has.
Joel Greenberg, a lawyer for a friend of Gaetz’s, indicated Thursday that Greenberg is planning to plead guilty in a federal case where he is charged with sex trafficking with a minor girl, cheating, stalking and trying to seduce a federal bribe for sale. official.
That case against Greenberg, a former tax collector in Florida, led to the ongoing investigation of Gaetz, 38, allegedly against an illegitimate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
Investigators are also monitoring whether Gaetz, according to NBC News, paid women to travel to the Bahamas, as well as whether he and Greenberg used the Internet to search for women to be paid for sex.
The revelation that Greenberg would reach a plea agreement in his own case sparked immediate speculation that he would cooperate with the federal authorities as they went to investigate Gaetz, who denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m sure Matt Gaetz does not feel very comfortable today,” Greenberg’s lawyer Fritz Scheller said on Thursday after appearing in court in the case. “You saw the number of stories there and the emphasis was on their relationship. Isn’t it obvious to assume he would be worried?”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) listens during a committee summary hearing on the articles of indictment against US President Donald Trump in the Longworth House office building on Capitol Hill on December 11, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Erin Elmore of Logan Circle Group said in a statement on Friday that Gaetz: “Matt has always been a fighter.”
“A fighter for his constituents, a fighter for the country and a fighter for the Constitution,” Elmore said.
“He is going to fight back against the unfounded allegations against him. His legal team, led by Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner, will fight those who try to smear his name with falsehoods.”
Elmore is a lawyer who appeared in season 3 as a participant in Trump’s former television show “The Apprentice.”
The Logan Circle Group is led by Harlan Hill, another Trump lawyer, who was banned from appearing on the conservative Fox News network last fall after tweeting that Vice President Kamala Harris was an intolerable liar b. , this is just true. ‘
Mukasey declined to comment to CNBC on his work for Gaetz, pointing to Elmore’s statement.
A Kirshner spokeswoman declined to comment except to confirm that she and Mukasey were retained by Gaetz.
Trump has not said much in defense of Gaetz in the past week, other than to deny a story that Gaetz sought a disguised pardon from Trump before the end of his term in January, pointing out that Gaetz ‘completely denies the allegations against him. ‘
Mukasey is currently one of several attorneys representing Trump’s company in a criminal investigation by District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office in Manhattan, which not only monitors the company but also the former president himself and others affiliated with the firm.
The Trump organization’s office of Vance’s tax and banking fraud is being investigated, as well as whether the company was properly accountable for the monetary payments made in 2016 to two women who say they had sex with Trump. .
The former president denies the women’s claims and said Vance’s investigation is a witch hunt.
On Thursday, investigators from Vance’s office collected financial records from Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of the Trump organization’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
Jennifer Weisselberg said she works with Vance’s investigation. The Washington Post reports that a subpoena issued at Vance’s request searched documents in her possession related to the Trump organization and an ice rink that ran the company in Central Park, which the former husband of Weisselberg , Barry Weisselberg, managed.
Michael Cohen, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer for many years, also collaborated on Vance’s investigation.
At the same time, New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump organization improperly values various fixed assets for financial benefits in the form of lower tax liabilities, insurance rates and loan terms.
Mukasey represents the Trump organization in James’ investigation.
Isabelle Kirshner attends Artwalk NY 2015 at Metropolitan Pavilion on November 17, 2015 in New York City.
Chance Yeh | Getty Images