FOR. FU£KS. SAKE.
:MuellerWhat:
Justice Dept. Nominee Says He Once Represented Russian Bank
Justice Dept. Nominee Says He Once Represented Russian Bank
By
CHARLIE SAVAGE and
ADAM GOLDMANJULY 24, 2017
An Alfa Bank branch in Moscow. President Trump’s nominee to run the Justice Department’s criminal division, Brian A. Benczkowski, has disclosed that he did work for the banks, whose owners have ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
WASHINGTON —
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division, Brian A. Benczkowski, has disclosed to Congress that he previously represented Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions, whose owners have ties to President Vladimir V. Putin.
Mr. Trump nominated Mr. Benczkowski, a partner at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm and a former Bush administration Justice Department official, in June, and he is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Alfa Bank was at the center of scrutiny last year over potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia after computer experts discovered data suggesting a stream of communications between a server linked to the Trump Organization and a server linked to the bank.
Reports about the mysterious data transmissions fueled speculation about a back channel.
The F.B.I. investigated the matter, however, and concluded that the servers’ interactions were not surreptitious exchanges between the campaign and Russia, according to current and former law enforcement officials. Experts have
argued that the server linked to the Trump Organization appeared to be controlled by a marketing firm, Cendyn, that was sending emails promoting Trump hotel properties.
Document
In a letter obtained by The New York Times, President Trump's nominee to run the Justice Department criminal division, Brian A. Benczkowski, disclosed to Congress that he previously represented Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions.
OPEN Document
Ahead of the Judiciary Committee hearing, Mr. Benczkowski told the panel that he had previously been forbidden by his firm’s confidentiality agreement from disclosing his work for Alfa Bank, but had obtained a waiver.
The disclosure was made in a
July 19 letter to the committee that was obtained by The New York Times.
“Your staff has indicated that the committee may wish to question me at my hearing regarding the fact and scope of my work for Alfa Bank,” Mr. Benczkowski wrote, saying his waiver would permit him “to discuss the fact and scope of the representation at the hearing. As I am sure you understand, ethical considerations prohibit me from disclosing confidential legal advice or any other information protected by the attorney-client privilege under any circumstances.”
Mr. Benczkowski’s disclosure comes at a time of tremendous political and legal scrutiny over ties between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russians including a special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded in that effort.
On Monday, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spoke to congressional investigators about his own contacts with Russian officials throughout the campaign, even as bipartisan majorities in Congress were poised to enact a bill that would strip Mr. Trump of the ability to unilaterally lift sanctions against Russia.
Brian A. Benczkowski sat behind Senator Jeff Sessions during a hearing on Capitol Hill in 2009.Harry Hamburg/Associated Press
Mr. Benczkowski and his associates portrayed his representation of Alfa Bank as benign.
Along with Mr. Benczkowski’s letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kirkland & Ellis submitted to lawmakers a letter on Friday by Viet Dinh, a partner at the firm and another former Bush administration Justice Department veteran, denouncing rumors that Alfa Bank had been a conduit for illicit communications between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russian government.
Mr. Dinh attached two reports by independent cybersecurity experts — one by Mandiant, which looked at data transmissions in 2016, and another by Stroz Friedberg, which looked at another set in 2017 — and concluded that the data were not evidence of substantive contact between the bank and the Trump organization. The Mandiant report was spurred in part by records submitted to Alfa Bank by The Times last year as it
investigated the data transmissions.
“As the victim of an apparent malicious hoax, Alfa Bank remains eager to get to the bottom of the false allegations against it, and stands ready to assist the committee and all other government authorities as needed,” Mr. Dinh wrote.
But Mandiant’s investigation of Alfa Bank was, at best, cursory. According to people familiar with Mandiant’s review, its experts were shown largely metadata, the information that travels along with a message, for the communications that took place. The contents of the messages — if there were any — were not available.
Without a much deeper forensic examination, the company could not determine the purpose of the communications. Its resulting report was carefully hedged, noting that without more study, it could not give the bank a clean bill of health. But the bank used that report, however limited, to make the case that it had been exonerated.
this is how it starts...
