Vice President Mike Pence has hired his own outside counsel to help navigate the historic and gnarly legal situation he’s found himself in as a member of Team Trump, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Since it doesn’t appear that Donald Trump can fire his way out of this one, expect the lawyering up to continue in the Trump West Wing. The president himself called upon Marc Kasowitz as his lawyer shortly after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel.
Pence took several weeks longer than the president to choose former U.S. attorney and Virginia state attorney general Richard Cullen as his counsel on the myriad of ongoing Russia-related investigations. Cullen was also a part of George W. Bush’s legal team during the Florida recount in 2000. “Kasowitz has told some White House personnel that they do not need to hire their own lawyers, according to one person familiar with some of the legal discussions that have occurred inside the White House,” the Post reports. “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.”
Cullen has handled a number of high profile clients in the past and, strangely enough, is the godfather to one of James Comey’s daughters, according to the Post. It’s hard to imagine what that will mean to a conspiratorial mind like Donald Trump’s.
