The White House is gearing up its legal defenses as Robert Mueller investigates Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
President Donald Trump and his associates are hiring high-list lawyers and have spent almost $1 million on legal fees since the beginning of the year, according to a campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission. That includes a $50,000 attorney representation for Donald Trump Jr., the Associated Press reports.
For the president, Trump has bought himself an outside legal team, who includes Jay Sekulow, a television commentator, and attorney Marc Kasowitz. Trump has also added a new in-house special counsel, Ty Cobb, for Russia-related matters, according to the AP.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner also has hired high-powered attorneys to work for him including Abbe Lowell, one of the country’s leading criminal defense lawyers.
Trump Jr. recently hired his own stack of lawyers from the Alan Futerfas law firm.
Former campaign aids also plan to get representation, like Michael Caputo, who is now represented by former New York State Attorney General Dennis Vacco.
However, there is bound to be trouble with the mass number of different representation, the AP notes. The interests of all parties may not all match up, causing confusing and potential conflicts on interests.
The inconsistency of transparency clearly showed after it was reported last week that Trump Jr., Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort met with a Russian attorney. Trump’s team of lawyers released a statement that had to be amended repeatedly.
Trump Jr. claimed the meeting was about adoption, yet President Trump tweeted that it was about potentially damaging Clinton information.
The lawyers were constantly checking their backs and their colleague’s backs to see what information the others were releasing, and then tweaking their public statements, according to The Associated Press.
In the middle of this confusion, Cobb was hired to help release official white House responses to developments.