Fox News is reporting that President Donald Trump has hired a new attorney to join his current legal team. Former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise will be joining current team members Jim Trusty and Evan Corcoran to defend the 45th POTUS against a criminal investigation of the documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on August 8.
Fox News reports that a source close to the matter told them Kise had been officially hired as of Tuesday, and he will be a part of the legal team that is present at the Thursday hearing regarding the appointment of a special master at the West Palm Beach federal courthouse.
Kise has most recently worked with the Foley and Lardner firm; he also has a reputation as a successful solicitor arguing cases before the Supreme Court, winning four cases at the federal level. Kise also won multiple cases he argued before the Florida state supreme court. Kise is a graduate of the Florida State University School of Law.
On Thursday, Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to her post by President Trump, will oversee a hearing on the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Cannon ordered the hearing over the weekend, but by Monday, the DOJ responded with a filing of its own stating that they had already utilized a filter team (some call them a taint team) to review the materials themselves. Still, the hearing is set to be held. Some legal scholars have held that these so-called filter teams are unconstitutional, and that Trump will likely be awarded the appointment as requested.
The DOJ says that their filter team has found only a “limited set” of documents they say could fall under the description of being privileged. A letter was released last week in which the director of the National Archives said the Biden Administration had given her authority to waive any claims of executive privilege Trump might have had regarding the documents. This information has also given legal scholars reason to say the Trump raid was unprecedented.
Judge Aileen Cannon has the ability to decide whether the filter team has done the job properly, or she can appoint the special master to review the documents. Otherwise, the documents the filter team has already deemed do not fall under attorney-client privilege may then be handed over to the Justice Department prosecution team.
Cannon has shown in her weekend order that she does intend to appoint a special master to review the materials. She also wrote in the order that she wanted a more specific inventory of the property receipt that was submitted to the public. Cannon has said she will keep the detailed receipt under a seal.
Kise is known as a “top lawyer;” he was most recently a partner at Foley and Lardner, but sources say he has withdrawn his partnership. It is uncertain whether Kise resigned from the firm before his agreement to represent Trump or after.
Kise, according to NBC News, has been negotiating with the Trump legal team regarding his joining the group in the days following the August 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago. Kise was also a part of Ron DeSantis’ transition team when DeSantis won the governorship in 2018. Kise has also been credited with “releasing damaging information” about DeSantis’ opponent, Andrew Gillum, in the days leading up to the gubernatorial election.
The information made national headlines at the time; Gillum had accepted free tickets to the play “Hamilton” from an undercover federal agent. This is a violation of ethics laws in the Sunshine State.
A mutual friend of both Trump and Kise, Brian Ballard, said that Kise possesses the type of experience Trump needs for this particular case. “He’s no shrinking violet,” Ballard told Reuters recently.
Earlier this month, President Trump clapped back at reports from The Washington Post and other news outlets that he was scrambling to hire attorneys to assist him with this case.
