A law firm that recently took over representation of Donald Trump’s campaign in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit is embroiled in a new scandal.
A top partner in the firm Schulman Bhattacharya, LLC, has been charged by the Department of Justice with using forged documents to gain access to $12.5 million of assets in Somalia.
Jeremy Schulman was charged in late 2020 and the case is still proceeding, the Daily Beast reported.
Schulman’s firm took over Trump’s discrimination case on Wednesday, replacing a previous law firm which asked to stop representing the former president because of an “irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.”
The lawsuit was filed by former campaign staffer Arlene “A.J.” Delgado who had a child during an affair with married Trump adviser Jason Miller.
She claims she was fired because of it.
Though Schulman isn’t directly representing Trump, he is a founding partner in the firm.
Federal investigators claim that, beginning in 2009, he and co-conspirators used falsified material to argue that they could take possession of frozen assets as representatives of the civil war-torn African nation’s transitional government.
The Daily Beast reports Schulman took $3.3 million in fees and expenses for his firm. The report claims he could be facing a prison sentence.
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Delgado mentions the issue in a motion objecting to the change in legal firms, with Trump’s new lawyer Jeffrey Gavenman defending the partner in a response.
“Plaintiff attempts to smear, by association, an entire law firm and the undersigned. This insinuation, based on mere allegations against one member of Schulman Bhattacharya, LLC, is unprofessional and borders on incredulous,” Gavenman wrote in a letter to the judge.
“Notwithstanding what may come of the allegations in the indictment, Mr. Schulman is presumed innocent, and his immaculate professional reputation and record show such presumption is not only mandatory but well-earned.”