A prosecutor with a doctorate in medieval history is expected to play a prominent role in President Trump’s legal team as a number of top-flight attorneys have balked at representing him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, according to a report on Wednesday.
Andrew Ekonomou, 69, an assistant district attorney in Brunswick, Ga., is a “brilliant strategist” who had been involved in complex investigations for years, Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow told Reuters.
Ekonomou, who has been working with Sekulow on the Mueller probe since June, will take a larger role after the
last week.
He told the wire service that he has practiced law for more than 40 years and believes he will make a strong contribution to Trump’s legal team.
“I’ve been tested plenty of times,” Ekonomou said. “Just because you’re not a Beltway lawyer doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Speaking about his experience, he said he’s been involved in a lot of criminal cases, but nothing as complex as Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump campaign associates colluded.
He said he “prosecutes a lot of murders for the D.A.”
Asked about his biggest cases, “That’s basically it. Nothing earthshaking.”
Ekonomou graduated from Emory University School of Law in 1974 and has worked in a number of legal positions in Georgia, among them in the US Attorney’s office in Atlanta.
He also works at Sekulow’s non-profit, the American Center for Law and Justice, which fights for religious freedom, especially Christian causes.
He also assisted Sekulow in a Supreme Court case in the 1980s about the First Amendment rights of a religious group, Jews for Jesus.
The court ruled in their favor.
After a “mid-life” crisis, Ekonomous returned to Emory and got a doctorate in medieval history in 2010.
He wrote his dissertation on: “Byzantium on the Palatine: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy, 590-752 A.D.”
Besides Dowd’s departure, two partners at the Winston & Strawn law firm – former federal prosecutors Tom Buchanan and Dan Webb – opted not to joint he team, citing “business conflicts.”
The decision by Buchanan and Webb follows Trump’s decision not to hire the husband-and-wife legal team of Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing because of conflicts.
Ted Olson, the solicitor general for former President George W. Bush, last week declined to come aboard, raising the “chaos” in the White House for his deicision.
