Trump Special Counsel Bolsters Team With Anti-Graft Specialists

(Bloomberg) -- The special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump brought on two current and former long-time career prosecutors experienced in handling complex public corruption cases, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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Special Counsel Jack Smith has tapped Ray Hulser, a veteran prosecutor who previously led the Justice Department’s public integrity section, and hired David Harbach, who previously served as counsel to a Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, according to the person who asked to remain anonymous.

The two attorneys have prosecuted some of the most high-profile public corruption targets of both political parties in recent years, including cases against Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and former presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards.

Harbach and Hulser are the first known new additions to the special counsel office by Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to take over leadership of the ongoing probes into efforts to undermine the 2020 election results and the potential mishandling of government records after Trump left office.

Smith is largely relying on the existing teams of career prosecutors who already have spent months working on the investigations now under his direction, but he has authority to make new hires and detail lawyers from across the Justice Department as well.

Harbach had been a partner at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers for the past year. The firm released a statement confirming Harbach left – thanking him for his “excellent work” and commending his “deep commitment to public service.” A spokesperson for the law firm declined to comment on where Harbach would be working next.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment for this story.

Smith has a history with both Harbach and Hulser. Hulser had served in the public integrity section along with Smith; he’s remained at the Justice Department. Hulser most recently has been a member of the team prosecuting former Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro, who is charged with defying a subpoena from the now-disbanded congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Harbach served in the Justice Department’s public integrity section as a trial attorney and a deputy chief during Smith’s time in charge of that office. His docket included the high-profile prosecutions of Republican McDonnell – whose conviction was later overturned by the US Supreme Court – and former Democratic presidential candidate Edwards, whose trial ended in a partial acquittal and mistrial.

He later spent two years working with Smith in the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague investigating war crimes before joining O’Melveny’s white collar defense practice in November 2021. Smith had served as the Specialist Prosecutor from 2018 until his appointment as the latest Justice Department special counsel in the fall.

From late 2014 through 2015, Harbach was a special counsel to Comey at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump fired Comey shortly after becoming president in 2017. Comey had led the initial investigation into whether Trump or any of his associates conspired with Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Harbach’s time in Comey’s office predated that investigation.

The Russia investigation was eventually taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who didn’t establish that Trump had criminally conspired with any Russians to tilt the 2016 election.

Harbach spent the next four years as an assistant US attorney in Virginia, and managed a team of prosecutors in the Richmond office before joining Smith in The Hague.

CNN earlier reported the hires.

(Adds additional background on the prosecutors.)

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