Kirkland & Ellis partner Brian Benczkowski told a group of senators Tuesday that if he could go back in time, he wouldn't have taken on a Russian bank as a client.
Benczkowski is President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department's Criminal Division. He faced little scrutiny until Monday, largely due to his experience in various leadership positions at the DOJ under President George W. Bush and bipartisan support. But news reports Monday revealed Benczkowski represented a Russian bank this past spring that was reportedly under investigation by the FBI for potential connections between its computer servers and Trump's presidential campaign. Benczkowski and Kirkland's work for Alfa-Bank thus became the focus of Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
"I was a lawyer in private practice doing what lawyers in private practice do," Benczkowski said of his work for the bank. Though Benczkowski had no role in the Trump campaign, he served on Trump's transition team from September 2016 through January 2017. Several Democratic senators appeared concerned Alfa-Bank specifically chose Kirkland & Ellis as its law firm knowing Benczkowski was likely to be nominated for a DOJ position. Benczkowski began work for the bank in March, and was approached about the DOJ post in April, he said.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) pushed Benczkowski on whether he would have taken the project had he known he'd be nominated for the Criminal Division post.
"You're heading up the transition team for DOJ, you go to private practice, you're asked to oversee this look at Alfa-Bank's interactions, computer interactions with Trump and then you're nominated for this office. You see that it's dominating a lot of the questioning. Do you think in retrospect, would you have done this differently?" Franken asked.
After some confusion about Franken's question, Benczkowski replied he would not have taken the work.
Benczkowski explained how he came to work for Alfa, noting he didn't bring Alfa's business to the firm. Kirkland partner Viet Dinh was the "relationship partner," Benczkowski told the senators. Dinh joined Kirkland last year when it acquired his boutique firm Bancroft.
Benczkowski said he learned of the representation after the client relationship was established and Dinh asked him to oversee an internal investigation at the bank. Benczkowski's private practice work focused on internal corporate investigations.
Dinh told The National Law Journal he asked Benczkowski to join the project because he's "as experienced as they come."