If you missed Rachel Maddow's show last night, you missed a rare treat, Rachel actually having fun. Her research staff did their usual excellent job, and the extra information she was able to share as a part of the story was just flat out tickling her pink.
The story itself was simple. It’s unclear as to whom Forrest Trump finally listened to, but he decided to lawyer up. And now we know who it is. It’s a guy by the name of Marc Kasowitz. You may or may not know the name, but if you watch Rachel at all, you know him by his past and current deeds. He’s an odd choice since he’s a New York lawyer, not a Washington insider used to running a defense team. But there’s a good reason Trump hired him.
He has a long history with Trump. He has handled divorce work for Trump, among other things. For instance, back in 2005 a journalist by the name of Timothy O’Brien published a book titled “Trumpnation. The art of being the Donald”. This book was an abomination to Trump for one simple reason, O’Brien stated very forcefully that Trump was horribly overrated when it came to his net worth, rather than billions, Trump was worth about $350M. Nobody, and I mean nobody hits Trump below the money belt. Trump hired Kasowitz to sue O’Brien for defamation, and asked for $5B in damages. Kasowitz showed legal brilliance in the way that he managed to allow his client, under deposition questioning to repeatedly state that his net worth changed all of the time because he “went with his gut” as to what he felt his properties were worth at the moment. The case was thrown out of court, but in a classic show of legal magic Kasowitz also lost the futile appeal to have the case reinstated.
Kasowitz was also involved in Trump’s defense for his little disagreement with the New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman over what exactly constitutes fraud when it comes to an institution of higher education. Yep, he was at least one of The Orange Julius’ mouthpieces for the Trump U lawsuit. You know, the one where Kasowitz pulled off the legal miracle of the decade by holding the settlement amount that his client had to pay to a measly $25M? I’m not sure why this guy doesn’t already have his own bust in the main hall at the U.S. Supreme Court.
But Rachel had to save the best for last. It turns out that Kasowitz doesn’t just sit around waiting for Trump to call him up to blow Trump a wad of his cash, especially now that Trump is the President, he has other clients as well. And believe it or not, Rachel actually reported recently about Kasowitz’ latest gig. He’s representing a bank caught up in a giant hostile takeover civil lawsuit in New York. The bank? I’m sure you guessed it, Sberbank, the Russian bank that is a favorite of Russian oligarchs everywhere, especially Moscow.
You have to admire the almost Gothic beauty of such pure, ignorant stupid. The Toddler in Chief has gone so far as to ask the chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, the DNI and the director of the NSA, as well as the FBI director to take various actions to make it as public as possible that he is not under investigation for colluding with the Russians to affect the 2016 election. And when he gets in trouble for that and has to lawyer up, who does he choose? Of all of the lawyers in the world, who does he pick? Of course he picks the lawyer who is already busy defending a bank that is almost a personal plaything for all of the people he’s so desperately trying to distance himself from. On the other hand, this could actually be a brilliant head fake by Trump. Maybe Kasowitz is actually taking Trump on pro bono, and then just double billing the Russians as a reward for the Cheeto Prophet selling us down the river.
Here is the episode, this story is about the first 10 minutes of the segment, just start at the 4:30 mark to catch the fun.