Barry Berke, the Democrat donor-turned-impeachment counsel who roiled House Judiciary Committee hearings in 2019, has launched a new law practice to help targets of congressional investigations ahead of an anticipated Republican midterm victory.
The practice, housed within the Kramer Levin law firm, will seek to protect clients from the investigations that Republicans have promised to undertake, such an inquiry into Hunter Biden, if (or when) they re-take at least one house of Congress in November.
A press release from Kramer Levin said:
Kramer Levin’s Congressional Investigations clients will benefit from Mr. Berke’s historically vast experience at the very highest level of investigations while receiving the combined support of the firm’s highly regarded Litigation practice, chaired by Mr. Berke, and its White Collar Defense and Government Investigations practice, co-chaired by Paul H. Schoeman and Dani R. James. The Congressional Investigations practice group will also include former federal prosecutors Michael Martinez and Darren LaVerne, former Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division trial attorney Gary A. Orseck, and partners Lee Turner Friedman, Barry J. Pollack and Jennifer S. Windom, who have extensive experience representing clients in investigations and enforcement actions before the DOJ, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and other government agencies and congressional committees.
Mr. Schoeman, who also serves as co-chair of the firm, said, “Congressional investigations present clients with unique problems and risks, and Barry’s experience combined with our deep team of litigators, which includes many former federal prosecutors, will enable the firm to provide the creative, high-level strategy that is required to address every aspect of these complex situations.”
Berke achieved notoriety when he and co-counsel Daniel Goldman — the heir to the Levi’s fortune, and now a virtual lock to be elected to Congress after winning the primary in New York’s 10th congressional district — presented the impeachment report.
Re. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who had directed the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment investigation, broke with tradition by not appearing himself — presumably hoping to evade difficult questions from members of the Republican minority on the committee.
Berke, brash and boisterous, made an opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee that included several inaccurate claims, and a deceptively edited video of then-President Donald Trump. But committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) had failed to place Berke under oath, meaning that he could not be prosecuted for perjury.
That irritated Republicans — who became even more angry when Berke was allowed to sit on the dais with them. Some pointed out that he and Goldman had donated heavily to Democrats. Berke questioned his opposing counsel, Stephen Castor, who was under oath, while Berke himself had never been sworn in.
That was not the end of Berke’s manipulations, as Breitbart News noted:
When Republicans objected to Berke’s comments about President Donald Trump’s alleged motivations, which are forbidden under House rules, Nadler said that House rules did not apply to witnesses. But when Republicans asked why Berke had not, therefore, been sworn in, Nadler said that Berke had appeared as a staff member, not a witness.
Kramer Levin proudly described Berke’s participation in Trump’s impeachment as “historic.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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