The Trump Organization has hired New York criminal defense attorney Ronald Fischetti to represent it in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal probe into former President Donald Trump and his company.
“I am so pleased that Ron has been added to the team,” Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for the Trump Organization told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. “He brings extraordinary experience, a depth of knowledge and wisdom that is invaluable and that we so appreciate.”
Part of that experience apparently stems from his previous work as law partner of Mark Pomerantz, the former federal prosecutor who joined the Manhattan DA’s criminal investigation into Trump and his family business in February.
Pomerantz was sworn in as a special assistant district attorney at that time.
Pomerantz’s swearing in came as the district attorney obtained Trump’s tax returns from his accounting firm, Mazars USA, following a nearly 18-month battle with Trump and his attorneys who desperately tried to shield the documents.
Vance’s office has said it is investigating possible bank fraud and tax or insurance fraud. Prosecutors have issued subpoenas to obtain information that might shed light on Trump’s business dealings as they look into financial transactions at various Trump properties. The former president also faces a series of other court battles.
Fischetti confirmed that he had been retained by the Trump Organization earlier this week.
“I’m delighted that I’m going to be on the defense of this,” he told WSJ.
Sources close to Trump and the Trump Organization told the publication that before Fischetti was hired, the company’s lawyers had sought recommendations and called former prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office who had earned reputations as aggressive advocates, WSJ said.
Fischetti, a partner at the Fischetti and Malgieri LLP firm, is known for work on political corruption and tax evasion cases and has defended clients like South Carolina state Sen. Albert Carmichael Jr., who was convicted of buying votes during a 1980 Democratic primary; and former Rep. Robert Garcia (D-NY) and his wife, whose 1989 extortion convictions were overturned.
Fischetti and Pomerantz were law partners in the 1980s, when they shared a firm and worked on cases together. “He’s straight as an arrow,” Fischetti told WSJ of his former partner. “We are both professionals, so there won’t be any problems.”
