Former Trump Chief of Staff Roasts His Lawyers: ‘He’s Had a Mishmash of Really Bizarre Individuals Representing Him’
Mick Mulvaney threw shade at the cast of characters that former President Donald Trump has hired to be his attorneys over the years.
The former White House chief of staff was reacting to a CNN report about Trump’s lawyers waging a “secret court fight” to prevent a grand jury from obtaining information about his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Trump’s attorneys have invoked both attorney-client privilege and executive privilege to prevent people from cooperating.
CNN reported the legal dispute is under seal and happened after a grand jury subpoenaed former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann. The grand jury has already heard testimony from former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and former Deputy White House Counsel Patrick Philbin.
Appearing on CNN on Friday, Mulvaney was asked if Trump has a chance of succeeding in blocking Herschmann and possibly others from appearing before the grand jury.
“Probably,” he replied. “It’s very unclear. Keep in mind, there’s a bunch of different privileges here. The attorney-client privilege is different from executive privilege. In some ways, attorney-client is actually harder to overcome. The executive privilege is very murky because it’s not entirely clear to me and apparently other lawyers as well as to whose privilege it is to invoke.”
Mulvaney noted that when he spoke with the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, the committee received a letter from the Biden administration waiving privilege on his behalf.
He pointed out that Cipollone and Philbin have testified before the grand jury and observed they were White House lawyers rather than Trump’s personal attorneys.
“I would defend their integrity, 100%. There are very, very credible gentlemen,” Mulvaney added.
“You can say a lot about the president’s personal lawyers,” he continued. “He’s had a mishmash of really bizarre individuals representing him individually. But the lawyers he had as president – an institution – you can add Emmett Flood to that list. Ty Cobb. Really, really good lawyers.”
Trump has cycled through many lawyers over the years. Among them was Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018. Rudy Giuliani also served as a lawyer for Trump and is under federal investigation after the FBI raided his home in 2021. Sidney Powell was Trump’s attorney during the waning days of his presidency and she, like Giuliani, filed lawsuits in a vain attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Watch above via CNN.
