Former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise has agreed to represent Donald Trump in the criminal probe that resulted in the FBI raid of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate, NBC News reported.
Kise, who had served on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ transition team, declined to comment on the report.
Talks between Trump and Kise started shortly after the former president's home in South Florida was searched on Aug. 8 by the FBI.
According to NBC News, Kise has won four cases before the U.S. Supreme court and numerous others before the Florida Supreme Court.
During the final days of the 2018 Florida governor’s race, Kise had widely publicized information about Democrat candidate Andrew Gillum accepting free tickets to the Broadway show "Hamilton" from undercover FBI agents, NBC News said.
Gillum, who denied wrongdoing, narrowly lost to DeSantis and was indicted this year after the FBI investigation.
"Chris is a terrific lawyer," Brian Ballard, a Florida-based lobbyist and former top fundraiser for Trump, told CNN. "Among the best in the business."
According to the news network, Kise began work on Tuesday and will be among those representing Trump in his effort to have a special master assigned to the case.
"Chris is a 360-degree lawyer: appellate, civil, criminal, state and federal — he can do it all," said former Florida Sen. George LeMieux, who was the chief of staff to then-Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist in 2003 when the office appointed Kise as state solicitor general.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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