Mueller conflicts

Lawyers entering government are not required to publicly disclose the identities of clients they did confidential legal work for, but they are required to disclose whether they did such work. Mueller did not report any confidential clients in the past two years.

Some critics have suggested Mueller's work at WilmerHale represents a conflict with the Trump probe because the president's daughter Ivanka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort are all clients of the firm. However, a top partner at the firm said Mueller never did any work for those individuals. They are not listed as clients on the newly-filed form.

Financial disclosures were also released Tuesday for some lawyers Mueller has hired.

Aaron Zebley, Mueller’s former FBI chief of staff, left a $1.4 million-a-year job as a partner at WilmerHale to join the special counsel investigation. According to his disclosure, Zebley represented a range of corporate clients that included the NFL, Sony, Walt Disney Co., Apple, Citibank, Facebook, Booz Allen Hamilton, Levi Strauss, Pepsi and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts. He also reported $10,000 in income in 2016 for writing Mueller’s speeches.

Zebley listed three confidential clients who can’t be named because they are part of an investigation or a grand jury proceeding that isn’t public.

Another former WilmerHale partner who joined Mueller's office, Jeannie Rhee, has been the focus of critics who contend that her legal work for the Clinton Foundation creates a conflict of interest. The foundation is listed as a client on her disclosure form.

Her form and the others that were just made public contain a notation from top Justice Department ethics official Cynthia Shaw: "No apparent conflicts of interest."

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/08/robert-mueller-counsel-financial-records-241414