Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for US President Donald Trump, leaves Manhattan federal courthouse after a judge’s ruling to allow Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp to provide financial information to investigators, in New York City , USA, May 22. 2019.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Representative Matt Gaetz has hired two top New York lawyers – one of whom is currently representing the Trump Organization in an ongoing criminal investigation – to represent him as the Florida Republican faces a federal sex trafficking investigation.
The retention of the Trump firm’s attorney, Marc Mukasey, is notable not only for Mukasey’s track record in handling serious criminal cases, but also because former President Donald Trump has counted Gaetz among his most ardent defenders.
Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had also been a protégé to Trump’s personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Isabelle Kirshner joins Mukasey to represent Gaetz in the criminal investigation.
Gaetz, who has not been criminally charged, has also hired a public relations firm, Washington-based Logan Circle Group, to manage the devastating media outage after news of the federal probe first broke in The New York Times last week. .
The moves came as a lawyer for a friend of Gaetz’s, Joel Greenberg, who said on Thursday that Greenberg plans to plead guilty to a federal case accusing an underage girl of sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, and trying to find a federal government to buy. officially.
That case against Greenberg, a former Florida state tax collector, sparked the ongoing investigation into Gaetz, 38, on suspicion of an illicit sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
Investigators are also looking at whether Gaetz paid women to travel to the Bahamas for sex, according to NBC News, and whether he and Greenberg used the Internet to search for women to be paid for sex.
The revelation that Greenberg expects to reach a plea deal in his own case sparked immediate speculation that he would cooperate with federal authorities as they continue to investigate Gaetz, who had denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not very comfortable today,” Greenberg’s attorney Fritz Scheller said Thursday after appearing in court in the case. ‘You have seen how many stories there are and the emphasis is on their relationship. Isn’t it obvious he’d be worried? ‘
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) listens during a committee hearing on the impeachment articles against US President Donald Trump at the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 11, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Logan Circle Group’s Erin Elmore said in a statement on Gaetz Friday, “Matt has always been a fighter.”
“A fighter for his constituents, a fighter for the country and a fighter for the constitution,” said Elmore.
“He will fight back against the baseless allegations against him. His legal team, led by Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner, will fight those who try to taint his name with lies.”
Elmore is a lawyer who appeared in Season 3 as a contestant on Trump’s former television show “The Apprentice”.
The Logan Circle Group is led by Harlan Hill, another Trump advocate, who was banned from appearing on the conservative Fox News network last fall after tweeting that Vice President “Kamala Harris comes out as such an insufferable mendacious b – – Sorry, it’s just true. “
Mukasey declined to comment on CNBC about his work for Gaetz, noting Elmore’s statement.
A Kirshner spokesman declined to comment for her, except she confirmed that she and Mukasey had been detained by Gaetz.
Trump has not said much at all in Gaetz’s defense over the past week, other than to deny a story that Gaetz requested a general criminal pardon from Trump before the end of his tenure in January, and to point out that Gaetz denied the charges against him. “
Mukasey is currently one of many attorneys representing Trump’s company in a criminal investigation by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who looks not only at that company, but also at the former president himself and others who are at it. company are connected.
Vance’s office is believed to be investigating possible tax and bank fraud by the Trump Organization, as well as whether the company was properly accountable for silent cash payments made in 2016 to two women who say they had sex with Trump.
The ex-president has denied the women’s claims and has said that Vance’s investigation is a witch hunt.
On Thursday, investigators at Vance’s office gathered financial data from Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.
Jennifer Weisselberg has said she’s working with Vance’s probe. The Washington Post reported that a subpoena issued at Vance’s request sought documents in her possession pertaining to the Trump organization and an ice rink the company had run in Central Park that identified Weisselberg’s ex-husband Barry Weisselberg. managed.
Michael Cohen, who was Trump’s personal attorney for many years, also cooperated in Vance’s investigation.
At the same time, New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization has falsely valued various real estate assets for financial benefits in the form of lower tax liabilities, insurance rates and loan terms.
Mukasey represents the Trump Organization in the James investigation.
Isabelle Kirshner attends Artwalk NY 2015 at Metropolitan Pavilion on November 17, 2015 in New York City.
Chance Yeh | Getty Images