President Trump’s legal team got a boost of big-name talent and criminal-law expertise with the addition of Rudy Giuliani and two other former federal prosecutors, Politico reports. The changes come at a critical time for the widespread Russia inquiry and a high-stakes criminal investigation into the president’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The hiring of the former New York mayor, along with the husband-wife law partners Jane Serene Raskin and Marty Raskin, came after a federal judge raised doubts about the scope of the order used to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to look into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and just before the Justice Department delivered to Congress copies of former FBI director James Comey’s memos documenting his interactions with the president last year. (The memos show Trump telling Comey he had serious concerns about the judgment of a top adviser, asked about the possibility of jailing journalists and described a boast from Vladimir Putin about Russian prostitutes, the Associated Press reports.)
A Los Angeles judge on Friday will hear a bid by the president and Cohen to delay a lawsuit filed by Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump. Giuliani, a longtime friend of the president, is expected to take a lead role as Trump’s representative in navigating the Mueller investigation. He replaces John Dowd, who resigned last month. Ty Cobb, a white-collar defense expert, is handling the official White House response to the Russia investigation. On the personal front, Trump has been leaning on Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law & Justice. He’s in touch with other advisers, including Marc Kasowitz and Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News host. Trump also has a New York-focused wing with Joanna Hendon, a former federal prosecutor who has been handling the response to the Cohen investigation.