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Carol D. Leonnig
A national investigative journalist focused on the White House and the government's responsibility
President Trump has chosen Pat Cipollone, a long-time Conservative activist and commercial lawyer in Washington, as the next White House board to replace Donald McGahn, according to two people close to Trump's decision.
Trump announced to Cipollone his choice last week.
Cipollone, a commercial litigator at Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato & Missner, is a man appreciated and respected by Trump's personal lawyers.
Cipollone is expected to head to the first legal office next week, pending a security clearance audit. He would lead this office at a crucial and difficult time. The White House lawyers' team was eviscerated by departures, from 35 to 25 at the beginning of the year. The office normally has 50 lawyers. He has also lost four of his five key MPs in recent months.
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The losses come at an inopportune moment: the White House is preparing for a congressional investigative attack if the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives after the mid-term elections. The White House Council Office will be the main responsible and defender of the administration in the flood of investigations and subpoenas to appear before Congress.
Pat Cipollone is expected to head to the first legal office next week, pending a security clearance review. (Law firm Stein Meissner Cipollone)
Trump had also planned to hire Emmet Flood, a White House lawyer who is currently helping to manage the special advice investigation, but finally decided to let Flood focus on his current job. Flood, who is a good friend of Cipollone, will remain in his key role.
The Washington Post was the first to report in late August that Trump saw Cipollone as his next White House council.
Trump surprised some after his hasty announcement in late August that McGahn, who spearheaded the administration's efforts to reorganize the court system, would leave his post as soon as the Supreme Court candidate confirmation process, Brett M Kavanaugh, would be finished.
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Although the president has not yet made a selection in August, he tweeted that he was "very excited about who will replace Donald McGahn as a White House lawyer." ".
According to the biography of his firm, Cipollone has practiced in the areas of commercial litigation, commercial regulation and health fraud. He has extensive expertise in corporate advocacy, as well as dealing with complex federal investigations and "pre-publication negotiations" on defamatory reporting.
He is a former partner of the law firm Kirkland and Ellis, whose lawyers include Kavanaugh, Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and the former Solicitor General of George W. Bush's administration, Paul Clement.
Cipollone is well regarded by some of Trump's top advisors, including outside counsel for President Jay Sekulow and Rudolph W. Giuliani. He became a familiar voice of Trump's attorney at the end of the summer and spoke to him frequently over the phone.
In the meantime, the White House Council Office has been reduced to about 25 lawyers, up from about 35 previously.
Cipollone is not a known name, but he is highly respected by Washington's lawyers for his nuanced work on complex federal investigations and corporate defense. He worked for the Department of Justice in the 1990s as the Attorney General's Communications and Special Projects Attorney, William P. Barr.
Tom Yannucci, former president of Kirkland Corporation where Cipollone once worked, said he was "a master of high-stakes business processing".
"I participated in recruiting Pat to Kirkland in 1993, and it was one of the best things I did for my firm," he said. He added that Cipollone combines personal skills, serene decision making and "enlightening intelligence" that will prove important if a Democratic House confronts the White House next year.
"He is very qualified to deal with this kind of situation, not to ignite but to get things done," Yanucci said.
W. Neil Eggleston, a former White House president's attorney, president of President Barack Obama, and a former Cipollone associate, called Cipollone "a great litigator … accustomed to high-profile litigation that keeps you close."
Eggleston said that he did not think that Cipollone's relatively small experience in government would be a handicap. "I think he'll do a good job," Eggleston said. "I think he's going to be smart and surround himself with people who have more experience in government than him."
Cipollone is active in the Catholic community and has served on the Board of Directors of the Catholic Information Center, a group that organizes events in Washington, as well as the Columbus School of Law's Board of Visitors. According to his biography with this group, he was one of the founding members of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
Another powerful link that the lawyer must maintain with Trump is Trump's conservative and ally commentator, Laura Ingraham. Ingraham calls Cipollone his godfather and considers him his "spiritual mentor" before his conversion to Catholicism in 2002.
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