House Judiciary panel

Trump Organization calls on House Judiciary panel to stop investigating company

By ANDREW DESIDERIO

The Trump Organization is demanding that the House Judiciary Committee stop investigating the company, arguing that the congressional probes have been “irreparably” tainted.

In a letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas said the committee’s decision to hire Barry Berke as a legal consultant violates ethics rules because Berke’s firm has long represented the Trump Organization. In the strongly worded letter, Futerfas demanded that Nadler fire Berke and that the chairman turn over Berke’s communications with the Judiciary panel.

“Your ‘Special Oversight Counsel’ and long-time Kramer Levin partner and litigation co-Chair, Barry H. Berke, is ethically conflicted from representing or advising the Committee,” the letter states, and demands "that the committee cease and desist” from all probes.

Nadler did not respond for a request for comment.

In a statement, Berke’s firm, Kramer Levin, said its past work for the Trump Organization is unrelated to “the work Mr. Berke will be performing for the committee.” The firm also stated that Berke’s work for the committee will be in his “personal capacity” and the firm won’t be compensated for Berke’s legal services to the committee.

“If there was anything substantially related, they would have pointed that out in the letter,” said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served in the George W. Bush White House.

The Judiciary Committee recently tapped Berke and Norm Eisen to serve as legal advisers as lawmakers investigate President Donald Trump and conduct oversight of the federal probes that have ensnared the president, his family and his associates.

Berke and Eisen, a former Obama administration White House lawyer, have been publicly critical of the president and have suggested that he has already committed crimes related to obstruction of justice. Republicans said the hirings revealed Democrats’ intention to pursue impeachment proceedings against Trump.