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Pence hires outside counsel to deal with Russia probe inquiries

T

Tovarisc

Member
Vice President Mike Pence has hired outside legal counsel to help with both congressional committee inquiries and the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russia.

The vice president's office said Thursday that Pence has retained Richard Cullen, a Richmond-based attorney and chairman of McGuire Woods who previously served as a U.S. attorney in Eastern District of Virginia.

Pence's decision comes less than a month after Trump hired his own private attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, to help navigate the investigations related to the Russia probe, and a day after the Washington Post reported that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is now widening his investigation to examine whether the president attempted to obstruct justice.

”I can confirm that the Vice President has retained Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods to assist him in responding to inquiries by the special counsel," said Jarrod Agen, a Pence spokesman, in an email statement. ”The Vice President is focused entirely on his duties and promoting the President's agenda and looks forward to a swift conclusion of this matter."

Cullen will not be paid with taxpayer funds, an aide said. Cullen referred questions to the vice president's office.
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Kasowitz has told some White House personnel that they don't need to hire their own lawyers, according to one person familiar with some of the legal discussions that have occurred inside the White House. But Pence's move to hire an outside attorney could set off a scramble among other West Wing aides — many of whom are already bracing for subpoenas — to do the same, even if only as a protective measure.
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...7_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.ce18320448c5
 
B

BoogieWoogie

Banned
MBlS7Wr.gif
 
IlGialloMondadori

IlGialloMondadori

Member
" looks forward to a swift conclusion of this matter.”

I, too, look forward to a swift conclusion, although with a decidedly different outcome than Mike would like.
 
B

BrassDragon

Member
Well, if your White House counsel might be under investigation for, say, ignoring repeated warnings about Flynn, I guess you need to look outside for lawyer.
 
A

androvsky

Member
So how ugly do things get when Trump realizes Pence has a better lawyer who's far better suited for this situation than he does?
 
P

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
androvsky said:
So how ugly do things get when Trump realizes Pence has a better lawyer who's far better suited for this situation than he does?
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the #1 question is how equipped are the Secret Service to stop Trump from hurting himself or others, or uh, millions of others, when the MPs knock on the door.
 
I

ICO_SotC

Member
The process of hiring a lawyer took several weeks and included interviews with several candidates, a Pence aide said.
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This lines up with reports from a few weeks back that team Pence started to realize they might be screwed becuase of the Flynn thing and needed to lawyer up.
 
B

Bam Bam Baklava

Member
ICO_SotC said:
This lines up with leaks from a few weeks back that team Pence started to realize they might be screwed becuase of the Flynn thing and needed to lawyer up.
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People really are overusing this leaks terminology for what is basic reporting practices. Someone told a reporter that Pence was looking for outside counsel, the kind of reporting that has been happening in Washington since Washingston was founded. To call everything like that a leak just plays into Trump's hands that any kind of basic Washington reporting is this new nefarious, illicit act.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Yaboosh said:
Has a vice president ever run in the primaries against his president?
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(The strong implication of setting up a PAC this early is that Pence thought there was a good chance Trump wouldn't make it and that he'd be running as an incumbent.)
 
A

Autodidact

Banned
Yaboosh said:
Has a vice president ever run in the primaries against his president?
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No, and that probably still won't be the case in 2020. Kirblar implied that Trump won't be president, then. Pence will, meaning he'll have to run for election a la Gerald Ford.

EDIT: Someone owes me a soda.
 
V

Vicetrailia

Banned
Damn it must be good to be these lawyers, they are going to make so much money.

More from this whole debacle than I will make in half a life.
 
B

Bam Bam Baklava

Member
EdibleKnife said:
I don't know if he plans to flip or what but I hope he lands in jail too
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None of these people are going to jail, that just doesn't happen at this level. Pence is also the least likely person to be involved in any kind of serious trouble.

Some of you are throwing around terms like obstruction too loosely.
 
K

kirblar

Member
TheOMan said:
Is this why he started that fundraising dealio?
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Nah, he did that months ago back when his team was spinning the same "Pence had NO IDEA about all this Russia stuff!" line that his team had done w/ similar scandals back in Indiana. At that point it was clear he was trying to distance himself and set himself up to survive the fallout.

But now w/ more information directly linking him to stuff w/ Flynn where people have said that he was fully informed and involved in the decisionmaking, it's becoming clear that he's not going to be able to escape gravity here. If/when Trump goes down, he won't escape the collapsing building.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
Bam Bam Baklava said:
None of these people are going to jail, that just doesn't happen at this level. Pence is also the least likely person to be involved in any kind of serious trouble.

Some of you are throwing around terms like obstruction too loosely.
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Pence ran the transition and has the strongest connections to Devos and her bro. He is one of the more exposed players here.
 
E

Electric Eye

Banned
Kasowitz has told some White House personnel that they don’t need to hire their own lawyers, according to one person familiar with some of the legal discussions that have occurred inside the White House. But Pence’s move to hire an outside attorney could set off a scramble among other West Wing aides — many of whom are already bracing for subpoenas — to do the same, even if only as a protective measure.
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Everyone sees right through Trumps clown lawyer. Trump literally pays him to assure him he's done nothing wrong and that's exactly what he does with no concrete evidence and then Fox repeats it and Trump sees it on TV and is doubly assured he's in the clear. Lol
 
R

RinsFury

Member
I can't wait for these traitors to be put on trial. Nothing would make me happier. Is the death penalty still an option for treason?
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
kirblar said:
His fallout is likely to be completely political, not legal.
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Sure. I was pushing back against the idea that "Pence is also the least likely person to be involved in any kind of serious trouble."

I agree that his fallout will most likely be political but, Pence is absolutely exposed here.
 
S

SeanC

Member
Inevitable. At this stage shit is going to start falling on him and the GOP and this administration will find out what "trickle down" really fucking means.
 
L

LiK

Member
Man, this is hilarious. Trump's legal issues are now affecting the White House. He truly is a parasite in this country.
 
T

Tovarisc

Member
LiK said:
Man, this is hilarious. Trump's legal issues are now affecting the White House. He truly is a parasite in this country.
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Moment Mueller started to look into if Trump was involved in obstruction of justice everyone in WH was put under microscope. They all need lawyers.
 
I

Iksenpets

Banned
kirblar said:
His fallout is likely to be completely political, not legal.
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Yeah, so far Pence's only problem seems to be he lied about what he knew, but that happened in media interviews, not under oath, so there's no perjury case.

Pence's main mission in all of this (which he seems to have failed) was to keep himself clear of the stink of Trump and his associates so that if the worst came to pass and Trump needed to be removed, he could step in relatively clean and the furor would die down. He was never in any real legal jeopardy though.
 
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