In midst of developing reports that President Donald Trump is under investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller for possible obstruction of justice, the President has added a legal voice who is a familiar presence on conservative media.
Trump tapped Jay Sekulow earlier this month to join his legal team that is advising and defending him on FBI and congressional investigations looking into possible collusion between members of his 2016 campaign and the Russian government.
Sekulow joined Trump’s personal legal team, which includes Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s go-to lawyer for years on both personal and business matters; Mark Bowe, who works with Kasowitz; and newly hired John Dowd, a well-known DC-based attorney.
Sekulow, who is 61, isn’t new to the Washington scene — he’s made a career championing conservative causes in court for decades.
His first big case in Washington in 1987 was defending religious group Jews for Jesus, helping them defeat a rule that prohibited the distribution of religious literature at Los Angeles International Airport.
Since then, he’s argued in front of the Supreme Court more than 10 times. And in 1990, Sekulow launched the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), viewed as the conservative counterpart to the ACLU, and has defended numerous evangelical causes.
And not unlike others who advise Trump on personal matters, Sekulow regularly appears on Fox News, as well as hosts a syndicated daily radio talk show.
But so far, Sekulow’s short tenure as Trump’s personal defender on TV hasn’t been so smooth.
The attorney did the rounds on the morning shows on Sunday, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he argued Trump is not under investigation, despite the President tweeting “I am being investigated” last week. He said Trump’s tweet was not a confirmation of the investigation, but instead a response to a report in The Washington Post.
But he contradicted himself on “Fox News Sunday,” where he first told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that Trump isn’t being investigated, and later slipped and said he was — then conceded by saying he “read the mind” of the special prosecutor. He’s since received backlash from liberal media outlets.
Former US attorney Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired in March after Bharara refused to resign along with a raft of other Obama-era Justice Department attorneys, slammed Trump’s choice to pick the attorney for his team.
“I don’t know what the facts will show or what the special counsel will conclude, but Kasowitz, Sekulow & Dowd is not the dream team,” he tweeted after the Fox News exchange.