After his home is raided by FBI, Trump's former campaign chair gets new legal team
As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia continues, Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, has ended his representation from WilmerHale, and rehired Miller & Chevalier, his former counsel.
“Mr. Manafort is in the process of retaining his former counsel, Miller & Chevalier, to represent him in the office of special counsel investigation. As of today, WilmerHale no longer represents Mr. Manafort,” spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement reported by Politico, the Hill and Reuters.
Mueller, a former FBI director who practiced with WilmerHale before starting the special counsel position, has been examining Manafort’s personal finances and consulting work, Politico reports. FBI agents raided Manafort’s Virginia home in July, the Washington Post reports, and the agency’s search warrant included requests for his tax and banking documents.
Reuters notes that Manafort has previously been represented by Miller & Chevalier’s Richard Hibey. Politico reports, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, that Manafort will be represented by Miller & Chevalier’s Kevin Downing, who has previously served as senior litigation counsel in the criminal enforcement section of the Department of Justice’s tax division. According to Chambers and Partners, Downing’s work with the criminal enforcement section included the 2009 deferred prosecution agreement with UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, regarding charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. by hindering the Internal Revenue Service.
At WilmerHale, Manafort was represented by partner Reginald J. Brown, Politico reports. Brown served as the White House Counsel’s principal legal liaison to the Departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development during the George W. Bush Administration, and now leads WilmerHale’s congressional investigations practice, according to his law firm biography.
Manafort had been subpoenaed to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the same day of the raid, but the subpoena with withdrawn, according to the Washington Post. Sen Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the committee, and Sen Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, issued a joint statement that the demand was dropped after Manafort started producing documents.
Investigators have also subpoenaed information from global banks regarding transactions involving Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, Bloomberg Politics reports. Gates worked for Manafort at a consulting firm with ties to Ukraine politicians who wanted to appear friendly to the West, according to the article, and he helped Manafort manage a private equity fund that planned to invest in Ukraine.
Also, Jeffrey Yohai, the estranged husband of Manafort’s daughter, is being investigated by FBI agents, according to the article. With money from Manafort, Yohai formed real-estate partnerships with investor money from New York and Los Angeles. Some of these partnerships declared bankruptcy, and some investors accused Yohai of running a Ponzi scheme, according to Bloomberg Politics. Yohai recently won a jurisdiction motion on a civil suit filed against him over one of the failed deals.
