President Donald Trump tapped a team of defense lawyers from Manhattan’s Sullivan & Cromwell to appeal his criminal conviction for hiding a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Robert Giuffra Jr. is leading Trump’s legal team in the case in New York, where the former president filed an appeal Wednesday. Giuffra, the firm’s co-chair, is a prominent litigator whose clients have included
“President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials,” Giuffra said in a statement. “The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan DA to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal.”
Sullivan & Cromwell takes over the case as prominent corporate law firms with ties to the president position themselves to try to influence policy. Several major corporate leaders have also publicly warmed to Trump following his November election win.
“Corporate America has switched the tune its playing and Big Law is following along,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a group created to scrutinize executive branch appointees. “I can’t think of a more high-profile way of doing so than representing Trump himself.”
The team replaces two lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, picked by Trump for Justice Department roles.
Trump was convicted in May on felony counts of concealing the $130,000 payment to Daniels before his 2016 White House run to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter a decade earlier. He was sentenced to “unconditional discharge” before he took office earlier this month.
Trump has criticized the actions by the judge in the case and argued that a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity limits his liability.
S&C partners James McDonald, Morgan Ratner, Jeff Wall, and Matthew Schwartz are also part of the new team. Wall, who worked in the solicitor general’s office during Trump’s first administration, leads the firm’s Supreme Court and appellate practice. McDonald was the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s director of enforcement in Trump’s first term.
Giuffra reportedly was among names in the mix for attorney general after Trump’s first pick, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, bowed out. Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general and sister of Paul Hastings partner Brad Bondi, ultimately ended up getting the nomination.
Campaign Contributions
Sullivan & Cromwell is a nearly 150-year-old law firm best known for its work in banking and securities and whose lawyers are fixtures in public company mergers and acquisitions deals. Several major law firms scrambled to cut ties to Trump and his businesses in the aftermath of the 2020 election and the riot at the US Capitol.
S&C’s move to back Trump doesn’t signal a broader shift in Big Law’s appetite for Trump as a client, according to New York Law professor Stephen Gillers. The firm is likely to argue that the criminal case is particularly important from a legal perspective.
“Sullivan will seek to persuade their clients who may be put out by them working for Trump that this a special case,” Gillers said. “It’s a narrow case and it’s only an appeal. It’s not repping his commercial interests or his businesses.”
The firm’s lawyers gave $2.3 million to Democrat candidates in the last election cycle, more than double the contributions to Republicans. Rodge Cohen, a banking law luminary and the firm’s senior chair, was among several Big Law attorneys who backed Kamala Harris in her race against Trump. Cohen gave at least $250,000 to Harris shortly after she entered the contest and was part of a group that hosted an August fundraising lunch in which tickets ranged up to $100,000 apiece.
S&C lawyers are not new to politics. The firm helped establish the Clinton legal defense fund to help former President Bill Clinton pay mounting legal bills stemming from the Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones harassment cases in the 1990s. Then partner M. Bernard Aidinoff served as legal counsel for the fund.
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