Trump's lawyers under investigation

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether lawyers tied to President Trump and his family helped obstruct the panel’s inquiry into Russian election interference.

[...]

In recent weeks, the committee sent lengthy document requests to four lawyers — Jay Sekulow, who represents the president; Alan S. Futerfas, who represents Donald Trump Jr.; Alan Garten, the top lawyer at the Trump Organization; and Abbe D. Lowell, who represents Ivanka Trump. The lawyers all took part in a joint defense agreement by the president’s allies to coordinate responses to inquiries by Congress and the Justice Department.

[...]

The line of inquiry stems from claims made by the president’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who told Congress earlier this year that the lawyers in question helped edit false testimony that he provided to Congress in 2017 about a Trump Tower project in Moscow. Mr. Cohen said they also dangled a potential pardon to try to ensure his loyalty.

  NYT

Is this going to be a "he said - they said" scenario?

The lawyers have so far balked at the committee’s requests. Mr. Schiff is prepared to issue a subpoena to compel cooperation if necessary, according to a senior committee official.

[...]

“Instead of addressing important intelligence needs, the House Intelligence Committee appears to seek a truly needless dispute — this one with private attorneys — that would force them to violate privileges and ethical rules,” [Patrick Strawbridge, who represents Mr. Sekulow] said. “As committed defense lawyers, we will respect the constitution and defend the attorney-client privilege — one of the oldest and most sacred privileges in the law.”

The lawyers raised other objections in response to Mr. Schiff’s initial request, writing that the inquiry “appears to be far afield from any proper legislative purpose.”

Moreover, they wrote, Mr. Cohen is a witness of “questionable reliability” and his current lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, has acknowledged that Mr. Cohen himself wrote the lines in question “that formed the basis of his guilty plea for lying to Congress, and not anyone else.”

[...]

The questions about Mr. Cohen’s false testimony and possible pardons are part of a broader inquiry by the committee into possible attempts to obstruct its investigation of Russian election interference and ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Raising the possibility of legal exposure for lawyers in the case is certain to further inflame tensions between the president’s team and Democrats who control the House.

[...]

While it is a crime to obstruct a valid congressional investigation and to conspire to make false statements to Congress, it would most likely be a difficult case to bring against lawyers working in the case. Even if it could prove wrongdoing, the committee has little recourse beyond referring the case to the Justice Department, and the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has already declined to investigate or to charge the lawyers involved.

[...]

In a statement, Mr. Schiff indicated that he was trying to send a message to other potential witnesses.

“If any individual is allowed to lie to our committee or encourage others to do so, hide behind inapplicable privileges, or otherwise fail to provide anything less than full cooperation, other witnesses will be emboldened to similarly obstruct, both now and in the future,” he said.

[...]

Mr. Schiff is taking a more aggressive approach and has argued that the committee is not obligated to honor attorney-client privilege, particularly if there is evidence that the lawyers aided a crime.

[...]

The Mueller report lays out several of Mr. Cohen’s claims. In it, he said that the lawyers had pushed him to remove a sentence disclosing that there had been “limited contacts with Russian government officials” in the course of the project.

Mr. Cohen also said that Mr. Sekulow told him that the details of an effort to set up a meeting between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia were “not relevant and should not be included in his statement to Congress,” the report said. Mr. Cohen and Mr. Sekulow spoke frequently before Mr. Cohen submitted his false statement, and Mr. Cohen said Mr. Sekulow told him he should not elaborate because the Moscow project had not progressed.

[...]

Vanity Fair later published the contents of emails between Mr. Cohen and his lawyer at the time, Stephen Ryan, in which Mr. Ryan detailed changes to the statement he said were requested by Mr. Lowell. Mr. Ryan also included what he said were edited drafts of the statement. The Times also reviewed the emails, which show Mr. Lowell asking that the statement assert that Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter, had essentially no knowledge of the proposal. Mr. Cohen later told Congress that he had, in fact, briefed Mr. Trump’s children regularly on his progress.

[...]

The special counsel assigned Mr. Cohen’s claims on the false statement at least some credibility in his 448-page report, but he appeared to pass on examining them fully. He did not, for instance, try to compel Mr. Sekulow to speak with investigators after he declined to do so voluntarily and did not obtain all draft copies of the statement. Nor is there evidence that he asked to interview other lawyers from the joint defense agreement.

That sounds like a stone or two unturned in the supposedly painstakingly detailed Mueller investigation.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.