After admitting that he indeed met with a Kremlin-linked Russian attorney to discuss information the tipster claimed to have that would be damaging to Trump opponent Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. is now lawyering up. He's chosen New York criminal defense attorney Alan Futerfas.
And that's quite an interesting choice.
Unlike [Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz], however, Futerfas’ practice is steeped in high-profile white collar matters, as well as the occasional political controversy. News archives show that Futerfas has long represented clients with alleged ties to organized crime, including alleged members of the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Colombo crime families.
Futerfas isn't the first Trump connection with links to two of those specific crime families. Bayrock Capital cofounder-slash-Russian mobster Felix Slater, one of the more notorious denizens of Trump Tower and a man Donald Trump partnered with on a number of projects, and perhaps a front for Russian money laundering, was charged in a securities fraud scheme linked to the Genovese and Colombo families.
What a small world. What are the odds, and so forth.
He’s also handled several cybercrime cases. His clients have included a Russian man who created computer malware and rented it out to criminals to rob banks, and an Israeli man who was one of several defendants charged in a massive hack of consumer data from JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions.
Golly. This man seems to have been born and bred to take on this specific case. It's as if Donald Trump Jr., who under no circumstances would collude with Russian criminals or partake of foreign cybercrime efforts, hired on a lawyer skilled in defending those very criminals just to prove how super-innocent he is.
Now, perhaps Donald Trump Jr. just happens to have stumbled on a lawyer specializing in organized crime because it was a name in dad's Rolodex. Or perhaps Trump Jr. is telegraphing where he himself thinks this case will soon lead. He is not the brightest bulb in the ol' family chandelier, and that is saying something, and his nonsensical statement on just what happened during that June, 2016 meeting strongly implies we'll be hearing further "clarifications" very soon now.
Still, he says nobody discussed anything like Russian cybercrime during his meeting with the Kremlin-linked visitor. He just happens to need a lawyer experienced in that for, you know, reasons.