Trump Hires Powerhouse New York Lawyer; Comey to Testify About Trump Confrontation
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, if you have questions about the Russia investigation today, don't ask the White House press secretary. Sean Spicer says that any of those queries should be sent to one man and one man only, the president's outside attorney, Marc Kasowitz.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So who is he? We know one thing, he's known the president for years. He has been fiercely loyal to the president. And here's more that Tom Foreman dug up.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At $1500 an hour, Marc Kasowitz is widely acknowledged in the legal profession as a powerhouse attorney, the toughest of tough guys, and he will be enlisted by the president to beef up his legal team after a special counsel was chosen to lead the Justice Department's probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, and after a former CIA director talked about --</s>JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign.</s>FOREMAN: Kasowitz was seen with first daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump over the weekend, even as reports swirled about her husband's Russian contacts. Jared Kushner is a presidential adviser, too. Kasowitz's firm has represented some big names, former FOX News host Bill O'Reilly, actors Robert De Niro and Mia Farrow, and for about 15 years, Donald Trump. When journalists wanted to see records of Trump's divorce from his first wife, Ivana, Kasowitz kept them sealed. He handled a lawsuit over the author of a book on Trump, financial battles over Trump's Atlantic City casinos, disputes about Trump University. And when "The New York Times" wrote a story about two women who said Trump touched them improperly, Kasowitz demanded a retraction. He did not get one, but for a president who prizes loyalty, Kasowitz is a proven ally with a difference.</s>DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: It's a perception that many of President Trump's employees are kept around because they tell the president what he wants to hear. That's not the case with attorney Marc Kasowitz. This is a top notch attorney who will tell President Trump the way things are. Whether or not the president wants to hear it or not.</s>FOREMAN: One potential issue, Kasowitz also represents a Russian bank as well as a company controlled by a Russian billionaire with ties to the Kremlin. In a previous statement, Kasowitz's firm says it has "never relayed information or facilitated communication" between that client and the Trump team. But for a White House being scrutinized over every brush with Russia, the political optics are not good. (</s>On camera): Unlike the White House counsel, which is primarily tasked with protecting the office of the presidency, Kasowitz will be looking after the personal interests of Donald Trump the individual in a probe that could go on for a very long time.</s>BERMAN: All right, our thanks to Tom Foreman for that. Former FBI director James Comey could testify publicly before the Senate Intelligence Committee as soon as next week. It will be a very, very important occasion.</s>HARLOW: It will. And our reporting is that he is expected to confirm publicly that President Trump pressured him to end the investigation into former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. We've seen it before, Comey is not afraid of being candid. Walter Mack is here with us. He's a friend of James Comey. He is also a former federal prosecutor. It's nice to have you here.</s>WALTER MACK, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Thanks.</s>HARLOW: So as we watch this public testimony we're expecting any day next week, how candid will he be?</s>MACK: It would be very hard for me to imagine Jim Comey in any situation in which he was not candid and accurate and precise. I think the better question is, what is he going to feel comfortable in specifying and being accurate about, and that's a matter of probably negotiation between himself, people who are advising him, and the other -- Mr. Mueller and probably others. So I think whatever he has to say will be candid and precise, but whether it covers the full gamut of all the interests the public has in what he knows, I would doubt that.</s>BERMAN: Why do you think he wants to talk?</s>MACK: Because he's in a setting in which he can say, as almost anybody with his experience would say, is that the public is asking for information on a topic of great significance and importance.</s>BERMAN: Well, is there anything personal here he feels like that he is being number besmirched in some way by the things the president has said or the fact that he was fired by the president?</s>MACK: I think it would be natural for him to feel that way, but my knowledge of him personally is that he rises above that. And as almost all assistants are trained, hey, take yourself out of the subject in terms of a personal situation and be a professional at all times, no matter what provocation.</s>HARLOW: So Comey's friend, another friend of his, Benjamin Wittes, has done the media rounds.</s>MACK: Right.</s>HARLOW: And he has been an incredibly detailed in describing Comey's state of mind, his reaction, his aversion to these conversations with the president, how uncomfortable he was. He even described a moment when Comey hid next to the blue drapes when the law enforcement officers were at the White House. Is there any question in your mind that Benjamin Wittes would have gone out there without the blessing of Comey? Do you believe he was a messenger for Comey to the public before this testimony?</s>MACK: I don't know the answer to that, but knowing Jim, I would be surprised if he had asked anyone to speak on his behalf. And as</s>I -- HARLOW: Do you think he would have given the blessing to speak on his behalf? There is a difference, right?</s>MACK: There is a difference. But I doubt it. I think Jim knows, having given his experience, that he never wants to be in a situation that he has asked someone to speak on his behalf. And so I'd be surprised. I don't know what -- I read Mr. Mr. Wittes' column and get it and I've been reading that, but knowing Jim as I do, I would be surprised if he actually told him, be a spokesman for me out there because, I mean, I think he would look to be able to do this on his own under the rules that he is obliged to perform.</s>BERMAN: The president and the White House has suggested that James Comey is a something of a showman. There's been a heated debate over that over the last few weeks and the last 24 hours even here at CNN. Is there any truth in it?</s>MACK: Well, there is always some truth that people want to present themselves in the best light, but knowing -- Jim is, as I say, a true believer in what the function is of a prosecutor and/or investigator and keeping yourself personally out of it as best you possibly can is the advice that we're all trained to be, because you're in trouble when you do that.</s>HARLOW: So is James Comey the memo man that he has been made out to be? Does he incessantly write memos? Is he known to be a great note- taker after meetings?</s>MACK: Well, I would say this, I don't know him as such. I know -- in other words, as a note-taker. But I do know him as an ultimate professional who would, in fact, you know, work very hard at trying to figure out what was the best thing for him professionally to do. And as I think I've said before, every prosecutor and/or FBI investigator is trained that, hey, if you are denuded of your other investigator who's there to take notes, you'd better be certain that you write a very accurate, selfless description of what just happened when you're talking to someone who could be a subject or a target of the investigation.</s>BERMAN: As a lawyer, Robert Mueller, you know, the special prosecutor, how interested will he be in the content of those memos? How much sway will they have?</s>MACK: Well, you know, they're both former directors. Robert Mueller, I have to say, is a former Marine. And basically accuracy and the ability to make distinctions between show boating and what is an accurate description of a conversation, you're pretty good at doing that.</s>HARLOW: Walter Mack, thank you very much.</s>MACK: Thanks for having me.</s>HARLOW: Nice to have your perspective.</s>MACK: Bye, Poppy. Be well.</s>HARLOW: All right. Coming up, American forensic teams are now on the ground in Afghanistan. That's where the bomb ripped through rush hour and killed 90 people, injuring hundreds more in Kabul. What they're finding, next.