The super-lawyer who kept Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump out of legal jeopardy during Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation now fears Donald Trump will demolish the very institutions that protected them.
“I have never been as concerned as to whether our system can withstand the pressure it is being put to,” Abbe Lowell told the Financial Times, warning that the White House is “pushing the tree to the point that it could break,” noting that during Trump’s first term, critics of the president said democracy was “tested but didn’t break.”
The legal eagle has defended several high-profile Democrat figures—including Bill Clinton and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
But he is perhaps best known for his high-stakes work for Trump’s daughter and son-in-law.
In June 2017, the Daily Beast reported that Kushner, 44, who is married to Ivanka, 43, had hired Lowell to join his defense team as Robert Mueller’s Russia probe heated up.
The following month, Ivanka followed suit, tasking the prominent lawyer to provide “legal and ethical advice” as investigators examined possible campaign ties to Moscow, bringing both Trump family members under the same high-powered counsel.
Now, Lowell says, Ivanka father’s behavior in his second term threatens to smash the constitutional “wall” separating courts from executive muscle.
“The crack you put in the wall today becomes the gash tomorrow,” Lowell had told Congress in 1998. That was “not a bad prophecy”, Lowell told the FT, saying that the structure is “more than cracked, not yet crumbled.”
In an attempt to fight back, Lowell, 73, has launched Lowell & Associates to combat what he calls government “over-reach.”
Nine law firms, he says, have already “buckled” under Trump-era intimidation—agreeing to nearly $1 billion in work that advances the president’s agenda while muzzling internal critics.
Several defectors from those firms have signed up to Lowell’s boutique organization, Lowell said, with many more showing interest.
Clients include New York Attorney General Letitia James—now under federal investigation after winning a massive civil-fraud judgment against Trump—and former DHS official Miles Taylor, whose security clearance vanished after he blasted the president.
Both hope Lowell’s aggressive strategy can blunt a barrage of executive orders targeting universities, NGOs and even courthouses.
“I don’t know the administration has the ability, breadth, depth and expertise to handle all” the resulting lawsuits, Lowell said.
Yet the veteran litigator is under no illusion every legal action will stick. With a Supreme Court that “believes in an executive branch with broad power,” reports the FT, Lowell says challengers must craft cases on First Amendment grounds rather than on presidential authority.
Because if Trump diminishes the authority of the country’s courts, Lowell warns, “there will just be rubble from that wall.”
The Daily Beast has approached the White House for comment.
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