Trump’s Go-To Lawyer For Media Brawls

Manhattan attorney Marc Kasowitz bills himself as one of the most “feared lawyers in the United States,” and he has become Donald Trump’s go-to man when the Republican presidential nominee wants to lash out against the media. Trump called Kasowitz after the New York Times ran a story on two women’s claims that he sexually assaulted them. In a letter, Kasowtiz demanded that the Times issue “a full and immediate retraction and apology.” Three weeks before that, when the Times ran stories based on three pages of Trump’s 1995 tax returns, Kasowitz threatened “prompt initiation of appropriate legal action.” Kasowitz also led an ultimately unsuccessful battle against an author who claimed Trump was not a billionaire. In 2004, Trump told American Lawyer that the attorneys at Kasowitz’s firm were “not good lawyers, they’re phenomenal lawyers.” One former New York Post and Fortune reporter who covered Kasowitz’s cases a decade ago said, “It’s a trench fight with them. It’s just brutal stuff.” That reporter, Roddy Boyd, was personally threatened by Kasowitz with a suit, and had his hard drive and notes subpoenaed. The subpoena was rejected in court in 2011.