WASHINGTON — Jay Sekulow, who will lead President Trump’s impeachment protection crew with Pat A. Cipollone, is considered one of Mr. Trump’s longe
WASHINGTON — Jay Sekulow, who will lead President Trump’s impeachment protection crew with Pat A. Cipollone, is considered one of Mr. Trump’s longest-serving private legal professionals, an achievement in itself because the authorized crew’s revolving door spins wildly.
Mr. Sekulow, 63, coordinates the work of eight legal professionals from a cooperative working house a number of blocks from the White Home, beneath the identify Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group.
He’s a conservative media persona with deep ties to the evangelical group, a crucial a part of Mr. Trump’s base. However Mr. Sekulow doesn’t possess in depth expertise within the proceedings that Mr. Trump will face within the Senate.
“Jay shouldn’t be a prison lawyer, and he’s not even a checks-and-balances constitutional lawyer,” stated Paul Rosenzweig, who was senior counsel to Ken Starr for the Whitewater investigation in the course of the Clinton administration. “However he’s been at it for 2 years, so perhaps he’s bought extra expertise in defending this president than anyone.”
Mr. Sekulow is a frequent presence on Fox Information and on Christian tv. He has his personal every day radio present, “Jay Sekulow Reside,” on which he and his son Jordan Sekulow, who works in Mr. Sekulow’s authorized agency, defend and flatter Mr. Trump and echo White Home speaking factors on impeachment.
Jay Sekulow was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Lengthy Island and in Atlanta. His New York roots contribute to his rapport with Mr. Trump, who is claimed to view him as a no-nonsense sounding board. As soon as an observant Jew, Mr. Sekulow embraced Christianity after exploring the Bible whereas attending Atlanta Baptist School, in the present day often known as Mercer College, the place he additionally attended legislation faculty.
Mr. Sekulow opened a legislation agency in Atlanta with Mercer classmates and his brother Gary Sekulow. Quickly after, he went into enterprise renovating and flipping historic properties, on the time a preferred tax shelter for the rich.
The enterprise imploded in 1986. Sued for fraud and securities violations, Mr. Sekulow, his brother, father, legislation accomplice and different associates declared chapter and left a path of unpaid money owed.
Mr. Sekulow swiftly reinvented himself as a litigator for the Christian proper, funded by televangelists and donations they solicited for him and his faith-based advocacy group, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, or CASE. In 1990, the televangelist Pat Robertson employed Mr. Sekulow as chief counsel for the American Heart for Regulation & Justice, a gaggle based in opposition to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. Sekulow received a string of Supreme Courtroom instances within the late 1980s and 1990s by arguing that bans on varied types of non secular expression in public locations violated the practitioners’ proper to free speech.
After Mr. Trump was elected, the president’s adviser Stephen Ok. Bannon really helpful the hiring of Mr. Sekulow to assist information Mr. Trump’s authorized response to the investigation of the particular counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
Mr. Sekulow works for the president whereas persevering with to run his legislation agency and Christian advocacy group.