{"id":4843,"date":"2026-08-16T15:35:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T15:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2026-08-16T15:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T15:35:36","slug":"the-elite-team-protecting-trump-keeps-getting-smaller-and-smaller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4843","title":{"rendered":"The ‘elite’ team protecting Trump keeps getting smaller and smaller"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump hired an “elite legal team” last year to represent him in ongoing civil and criminal cases, but now, per Politico, “all but one [member] is gone” as the team continues to shrink.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s pardons cause \u2018mayhem\u2019 as recipients go on \u2018crime spree\u2019: NYT<\/a><\/p>\n

As Politico detailed in its Sunday report, Trump retained the services of Sullivan & Cromwell last year, and received services from a team that ” included five of the firm\u2019s partners, all of whom had clerked for Supreme Court justices and one of whom had served as acting solicitor general.” Now, however, for one reason or another, that team has dwindled to one \u2014 but not always for reasons detrimental to the president.<\/p>\n

“Since April, four of the five members of Trump\u2019s defense team have exited the firm, either to rival shops or because the president elevated them to positions in his administration or the judiciary,” the report explained. “That leaves Sullivan & Cromwell co-chair Robert Giuffra Jr. as the single partner responsible for leading Trump\u2019s defense in a smattering of high-profile appeals, including an attempt to shed the president\u2019s criminal conviction.”<\/p>\n

Giuffra and a “junior-level lawyer” were the only signatories from Sullivan & Cromwell “on a petition asking the Supreme Court to overturn an $83.3 million jury award resulting from a defamation lawsuit filed by the writer E. Jean Carroll.” This petition reportedly sparked backlash amongst the rest of the staff at the firm.<\/p>\n

Read more A problem of Trump\u2019s own making doomed his Reflecting Pool fiasco: NYT<\/a><\/p>\n

The firm is also behind efforts to appeal and overturn Trump’s felony “hush money” conviction in Manhattan, as well as the fraud conviction secured by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the Trump Organization. This caseload has reportedly led to plans to expand Trump’s team at the firm, and soon.<\/p>\n

“It would be unusual for Giuffra, who has a roster of major litigation clients as well as co-chair duties, to handle all three appeals on his own,” Politico added. “A person familiar with the firm\u2019s staffing, who was granted anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said Sullivan & Cromwell plans to add partners to Trump\u2019s team in the next two weeks, by the time it is scheduled to file a brief in Trump\u2019s appeal of the civil fraud case Aug. 26. It is due to file a brief in the appeal of Trump\u2019s New York criminal conviction in October.”<\/p>\n

It added later: “[While] some lawyers who represented Trump in the past saw their reputations or careers damaged by their association with him, that isn\u2019t the case for the four who left his team. Trump named Jamie McDonald, the former enforcement director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as the Manhattan U.S. attorney. McDonald started the job in late July after being appointed by the district\u2019s judges. And Trump nominated Matthew Schwartz to a lifetime position as an appellate judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. He was confirmed by the Senate in mid-July. The others defected to a rival firm, Gibson Dunn. Jeff Wall, the former acting solicitor general, and Morgan Ratner, an experienced Supreme Court litigator, made the switch in April.”<\/p>\n

Read more The dark truth behind Trump\u2019s treacherous new fabrications<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s high-stakes legal appeals are resting on a single lawyer after promotions and defections emptied his elite defense team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe 'elite' team protecting Trump keeps getting smaller and smaller - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4843\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 'elite' team protecting Trump keeps getting smaller and smaller - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump\u2019s high-stakes legal appeals are resting on a single lawyer after promotions and defections emptied his elite defense team.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4843\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-16T15:35:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\"},\"headline\":\"The ‘elite’ team protecting Trump keeps getting smaller and smaller\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-16T15:35:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/d00d5950d333f7e1a427918e4ef86a49.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4843\",\"name\":\"The 'elite' team protecting Trump keeps getting smaller and smaller - 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