Rep. Matt Gaetz has hired two top New York defense lawyers — one of whom currently represents the Trump Organization in an ongoing criminal probe — to represent him as the Florida Republican faces a federal sex trafficking investigation.
The retention of the Trump firm’s lawyer Marc Mukasey is noteworthy not only for Mukasey’s track record of handling serious criminal cases but also because Gaetz is among former President Donald Trump’s most ardent defenders.
Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, also had been a protege of Trump’s personal lawyer former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Joining Mukasey in representing Gaetz in the criminal probe is Isabelle Kirshner.
Gaetz, who has not been criminally charged, also has hired a public relations firm, the Washington-based Logan Circle Group, to manage what has been damning media fallout after news of the federal probe first broke last week in The New York Times.
Rep. Matt Gaetz’s trouble may be worse than originally thought
The moves came as a lawyer for Gaetz’s friend Joel Greenberg indicated Thursday that Greenberg plans to plead guilty in a federal case where he has been charged with sex trafficking of an underage girl, wire fraud, stalking and trying to bribe a federal official.
That case against Greenberg, a former Florida county tax collector, led to the ongoing investigation of Gaetz, 38, on suspicion of an illicit sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
Investigators also are eyeing whether Gaetz paid women to travel to the Bahamas for sex, according to NBC News, as well as whether he and Greenberg used the internet to search for women to be paid for sex.
The disclosure that Greenberg expects to reach a plea deal in his own case ignited immediate speculation that he would cooperate with federal authorities as they continue to investigate Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m sure Matt Gaetz isn’t feeling very comfortable today,” said Greenberg’s lawyer Fritz Scheller on Thursday after he appeared in court in the case. “You’ve seen the number of stories out there and the emphasis is on their relationship. Isn’t it obvious to assume that he would be concerned?”
Erin Elmore of Logan Circle Group in a statement Friday said of Gaetz: “Matt has always been a fighter.”
“A fighter for his constituents, a fighter for the country, and a fighter for the Constitution,” Elmore said.
“He’s going to fight back against the unfounded allegations against him. His legal team, led by Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner, will take the fight to those trying to smear his name with falsehoods.”
Elmore is a lawyer who appeared in Season 3 as a contestant on Trump’s former television show “The Apprentice.”
The Logan Circle Group is headed by Harlan Hill, another Trump advocate, who was banned last fall from appearing on the conservative Fox News network after he tweeted that Vice President “Kamala Harris comes off as such an insufferable lying b—-. Sorry, it’s just true.”
Mukasey declined to comment to CNBC about his work for Gaetz, pointing to Elmore’s statement.
A spokesman for Kirshner declined to comment for her other than confirming that she and Mukasey had been retained by Gaetz.
ITrump has not said much in Gaetz’s defense in the past week, other than to deny a story that Gaetz sought a blanket criminal pardon from Trump before the end of his term in January and to point out that Gaetz “has totally denied the accusations against him.”
