There’s a lot of speculation on who the two whistleblowers involved in Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry are. Perhaps equally interesting, however, is the background of one of the attorneys representing said whistleblowers. Mark Zaid and his co-counsel, Andrew Bakaj, are the two lead attorneys in this high-profile case. As demonstrated in his interview with NBC News, Zaid keeps a low-profile in terms of his personal life and political leanings. In fact, he’s a registered independent, and as acquaintances interviewed by The Hill claim, he doesn’t talk politics. He hasn’t donated money to presidential hopefuls from any political party. What he is known for, though, is questioning the government—on both sides of the political aisle.
And he’s all too familiar with the pressure that comes with taking on such a case.
"This case, from the moment I've been in it, has been nonstop every single day. Obviously, it involves the president of the United States," the 52-year-old attorney said to NBC News. "We've been warned, 'They're coming after you.'"
Zaid relayed a similar sentiment to The Hill when he spoke to the media site. “Because this case directly involves the president and is caught up in politics, it is an everyday adventure,” he stated. “I don’t think I had my tweets on television before this case… They would make the newspaper, but not television.”
So, what’s Zaid’s deal? Here are five fascinating fast facts on the attorney’s background:
1. He’s done some deep dives into conspiracy theories
Here’s a surreal conspiracy theory case. In 1994, Zaid sued to exhume John Wilkes Booth’s body. Why? Good question! Descendants of Booth, as well as two historians, believed that Booth’s grave was filled by an innocent man. Why would that be the case? They believed that federal troops killed an innocent man instead of Booth because they needed a cover-up for the Lincoln assassination.
Zaid, for the record, never claimed to believe this theory.
2. The RNC retained him in an effort to get Hillary Clinton’s emails
The Republican National Committee retained his services. Why? In an attempt to access Hillary Clinton’s emails. This is in addition to his firm representing whistleblowers in the Benghazi investigation.
3. He’s being (understandably) tight-lipped about the whistleblower
As noted in the NBC profile, Zaid (and Bakaj) won’t reveal even the lightest information about the whistleblowers. For example, they won't share where or when the attorneys have met, or even communicated with, their client. Unsurprisingly, they also won’t share what they talked about.
4. He sued to halt a compulsory anthrax vaccination
Did you know that in the early 2000s, the Defense Department had mandatory anthrax vaccinations for all U.S. military personnel? Six service members sued the government, saying the vaccination was experimental and hadn't been vetted enough. Zaid represented them and, after their win, said, “the program was illegal and ill-conceived from Day One.”
5. He once filed a civil suit against the Libyan government
Zaid represented more than 50 relatives of victims in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which took place over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1998. The attorney has said he lost two classmates in the bombing. Zaid filed the first civil lawsuit against the Libyan government. In 2003, the Libyan government ultimately had to pay $2.7 billion to the victim’s families.
6. He wants to keep the government accountable
“We’re not ideological. We think our government does a lot of things right. I’m not an enemy of the CIA. I sue it all the time, I criticize it all the time, because it deserves it. But we work closely at times with it because it’s in the best interest,” he told The Hill in an interview. Zaid has recently been described as left-leaning by conservatives in the media, including Laura Ingraham, but in terms of his clients, that’s not really the case. (His co-counsel, Bakaj, did intern for Schumer and Clinton about two decades ago, as noted by Newsweek.)
You can read an Op-Ed by Zaid and Bakaj on the whistleblower’s identity (or rather, why their identity doesn’t matter) over at The Washington Post.
Here’s a video interview with Zaid on security clearances, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Trump: