Who are Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, Trump’s lawyers in NY hush-money trial?
The first criminal trial against Donald Trump is under way, involving hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Here are the attorneys that will represent him.
Court proceedings in the New York criminal trial against Donald Trump got under way on Monday with jury selection. The 12 peers of the former president will have to decide his guilt or innocence on charges stemming from falsifying business records to cover-up $130,000 in hush-money payments made to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels.
The 34 felony counts Trump is facing would normally be considered misdemeanors but were racheted up because District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that they were committed with “intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime” or conceal another crime. If convicted, the charges could result in a prison sentence for the former president.
Who are Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, Trump’s lawyers in trial?
This is the first criminal case, of the four that Trump has been charged in, that has gone to trial. His defense will be represented by two qualified New York lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles. Here’s a look at each of them.
Todd Blanche: federal prosecutor turned white-collar defense lawyer
Blanche is a graduate of American University and Brooklyn Law School. He worked as a federal prosecutor for nine years in the Southern District of New York. There he worked alongside Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, the lead prosecutor in the hush-money trial.
In 2017, Blanche became a white-collar defense lawyer at one of New York’s oldest law firms, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, joining as a partner. There he represented people from Trump’s circle including one of his lawyers, Boris Epshteyn, and a former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. As well, he represented a former associate of ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Igor Furman.
Blanche started up his own practice to defend Trump, first in the New York hush-money case and then in his two federal criminal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith, in DC and Florida. Trump is charged with multiple felony counts in each case for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election and withholding sensitive classified government documents, respectively.
Susan Necheles: defense attorney for politicians and mobsters
Necheles is a graduate of University of Rochester and Yale Law School. She worked as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York, before going into private practice eventually becoming a criminal defense attorney.
Some of her more famous clients include Pedro Espada, a former Democratic New York state Senate Majority leader,who she defended in a 2010 corruption case. She has also represented organized crime figures like mobster Venero Mangano, known as ‘Benny Eggs’.
She currently has her own law firm and was one of the lawyers who defended the Trump Organization in the New York State criminal tax fraud case, also brought by DA Bragg. The company CFO, Allen Weisselberg, pled guilty in August 2022 and provided testimony that resulted in a conviction verdict by a jury on all 17 counts including criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records.
The Trump Organization was ordered to pay a fine of $1.6 million. Weisselberg, as part of his plea deal, was sentenced to five months in jail. He recently returned to Riker’s Island for a second five-month stent for lying under oath in the civil business fraud trial that Trump lost earlier this year and was ordered to pay $355 million in damages.