2026-06-17T17:39:00-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-jamie-mcdonald-sullivan-and-cromwell-sdny/
华盛顿讯——当地时间周三凌晨四点还未到，远在法国参加七国集团峰会的特朗普总统就通过社交媒体向共和党参议员发出要求：他提名的美国南纽约地区检察官人选詹姆斯·“杰米”·麦克唐纳“必须立即获得确认”。
“在杰米就位之前，我可能无法让这位非凡的沙利文-克伦威尔律所合伙人杰米获得批准，而且我不想让杰伊·克莱顿离开他目前正在负责的出色工作，”总统在其Truth Social平台上说道。
麦克唐纳是特朗普选定的执掌美国最具声望的联邦检察官办公室之一的人选——该办公室以独立性和对华尔街渎职行为及其他白领犯罪的严厉执法著称。他将接替杰伊·克莱顿，后者已被总统提名为下一任国家情报总监。
据法庭记录和知情人士透露，尽管麦克唐纳在华盛顿和曼哈顿的权力走廊之外鲜为人知，但他在特朗普第二任期内一直是一股不容忽视的力量。在克莱顿也曾担任合伙人的全球顶级律所沙利文-克伦威尔，麦克唐纳曾在说服司法部为律所的企业客户撤销或了结一系列备受瞩目的案件方面发挥了核心作用。
民主党参议院消息人士告诉CBS新闻，随着特朗普加快提名进程，有关麦克唐纳能否保持检察独立性的质疑可能会成为任何确认审查的核心议题。
自2021年起便就职于沙利文-克伦威尔的麦克唐纳，所在律所已成为特朗普第二任期内与白宫关系密切的律所之一。
长期以来，律师事务所一直寻求利用与司法部的密切关系为客户提供服务，许多律师认为这是积极的辩护。但据一位曾在民主党政府任职的前司法部官员表示，其他大型律所的资深律师和职业检察官越来越质疑，沙利文-克伦威尔的客户“是否在司法部获得了优待——这并非基于事实或法律要求，而是因为该律所的部分高级合伙人与总统立场一致”。
“沙利文-克伦威尔深谙华盛顿的游戏规则，清楚在当前环境下与总统保持密切联系是最佳途径，”另一位曾在特朗普第二届政府任职的前司法部官员告诉CBS新闻。
上周六，总统在社交媒体帖子中表示，他相信麦克唐纳——这位前联邦检察官和监管官员“将为我们国家带来出色的成果”。
在总统指示克莱顿取消原定于周三举行的确认听证会，打乱了参议院共和党人快速确认克莱顿职位、解决与民主党僵局的计划后，克莱顿和麦克唐纳的提名前景都变得不明朗。
沙利文-克伦威尔在全球拥有十余家办事处，总部位于曼哈顿。据过渡团队知情人士透露，该律所管理合伙人罗伯特·吉夫拉曾一度被视为特朗普第二任期内司法部长的候选人。
“沙利文-克伦威尔是我们这座城市的顶尖机构之一，”与特朗普交好的曼哈顿亿万富翁约翰·卡西马蒂迪斯告诉CBS新闻。
麦克唐纳和吉夫拉都曾在过往私人事务中代表特朗普。该律所目前正代理总统就其向成人电影明星斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付13万美元封口费的刑事定罪提起上诉，同时也代理特朗普在纽约州检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯提起的民事欺诈诉讼中的上诉。
当特朗普发布针对顶级律所宝维斯的行政命令，可能会削弱其获取政府业务的能力时，正是吉夫拉协助促成了一项交易：一家商业竞争对手与白宫达成协议，撤销该指令，以换取该律所承诺提供4000万美元的公益法律服务。他与特朗普的私人律师鲍里斯·埃普斯泰因一同完成了这项工作，后者一直协调特朗普的法律辩护策略。
麦克唐纳在加入沙利文-克伦威尔之前，曾于2017年担任美国南纽约地区助理检察官，之后出任商品期货交易委员会执法总监，该委员会负责监管大宗商品和衍生品市场，并对违规行为提起民事执法诉讼。
克里斯·詹卡洛在特朗普第一任期内担任商品期货交易委员会主席，他表示自己聘用麦克唐纳是因为希望有人能严格执法。詹卡洛称他欣赏麦克唐纳作为检察官追查公共腐败和有组织犯罪案件的背景。
“他很强硬，但为人公正，”詹卡洛告诉CBS新闻，“他不会将政治挂在嘴边。如果有人担心存在政治动机，那杰米完全没有这种情况。”
阿达尼案
最近，吉夫拉和麦克唐纳在促成其客户与政府执法部门之间的其他交易方面取得了非凡的成功。
今年5月，司法部罕见地请求法官驳回对印度亿万高塔姆·阿达尼及其他被告的刑事欺诈和海外贿赂指控，这一决定是在沙利文-克伦威尔牵头谈判后做出的。
据一位直接知情人士透露，在特朗普下令对所有待审海外贿赂案件进行审查以决定是否撤销指控后，阿达尼案原本即将进入审理程序。
据消息人士透露，在提交驳回动议之前，司法部高级官员与沙利文-克伦威尔的麦克唐纳、吉夫拉和安德鲁·德菲利皮斯举行了会面。
据知情人士和CBS新闻审查的记录显示，在司法部的一次此类会议上，吉夫拉进行了陈述，对所谓的贿赂计划证据提出质疑。其中一张幻灯片吹捧阿达尼旗下的一家公司“正在推动印度的发展”，另一张幻灯片则称特朗普政府“本不应提起此案”。
消息人士称，吉夫拉在会上还表示，如果检察官撤销指控，阿达尼愿意向美国经济投资100亿美元。《纽约时报》此前已报道过此次会议和有关投资的讨论。
阿达尼随后同意支付1800万美元，以解决美国证券交易委员会提起的并行民事欺诈案。今年5月，美国财政部宣布与阿达尼集团的一家子公司达成2.75亿美元的和解协议，原因是该公司涉嫌违反美国对伊朗的制裁规定。美国政府称，阿达尼企业公司购买了源自伊朗的液化石油气货物。
据直接知情人士透露，美国证券交易委员会和财政部官员也参与了与沙利文-克伦威尔律师的会谈。
CBS新闻已联系美国证券交易委员会和财政部置评。
据法庭记录显示，就在政府提交驳回司法部对阿达尼案的动议几天后，负责此案的两名检察官突然退出了该案。该动议并未有提起此案的职业检察官签名，这一做法背离了常规，表明存在异议。
民主党人随后对司法部撤销阿达尼案的决定展开调查。在6月11日致代理司法部长托德·布兰奇的一封信中，马萨诸塞州民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和康涅狄格州民主党参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔质疑他们所称的撤销此案决定的“交易性质”。议员们暗示，阿达尼提出向美国能源和基础设施项目投资100亿美元，带有“交换条件”的意味。
“对于这位在阿达尼案撤销中发挥关键作用的特朗普亲信担任重要的美国检察官职务，我深感担忧，”沃伦告诉CBS新闻。
在发给CBS新闻的一份声明中，沙利文-克伦威尔的一位发言人表示，吉夫拉、麦克唐纳以及该律所的所有合伙人“毕生致力于为客户提供极其有效的辩护，并以此建立声誉，无论华盛顿现任政府是谁”。
“沙利文-克伦威尔之所以能接手最重大、最具挑战性的案件，是因为我们拥有行业内最优秀的律师。暗示我们律所和合伙人的成功源于其他因素，而非最严谨的法律论证、事实分析以及我们的判断力和经验，这完全是错误的，”声明补充道。
一位司法部官员表示，司法部“经常与外部律师会面，讨论待审案件和潜在的解决方案，以确保为美国人民带来最佳结果”，并表示撤销指控的决定是在与该公司律师进行数月讨论和内部审查后做出的。
南方煤炭案
据知情人士告诉CBS新闻，麦克唐纳还参与了说服司法部撤销对南方煤炭公司的非公开刑事调查。该公司总部位于罗阿诺克，由西弗吉尼亚州共和党参议员吉姆·贾斯蒂斯的儿子运营。
一位消息人士称，此次调查的导火索是人们担忧南方煤炭公司篡改了根据与司法部和多个州达成的长期 consent decree 要求提交的水质检测报告。ProPublica 此前曾报道过该案的结案情况，但麦克唐纳的角色此前并未被披露。
一位消息人士称，在司法部副部长办公室的官员与南方煤炭公司的律师（包括麦克唐纳）会面后，司法部指示检察官终止调查。
该消息人士表示，调查在结案时仍处于早期阶段。贾斯蒂斯家族法律团队的发言人拒绝置评。
本月早些时候，贾斯蒂斯公司的律师史蒂文·鲁比在给ProPublica的一份声明中表示：“最终，政府调查的结论是，没有任何证据可以追究刑事责任。”他补充道，“这些公司从未有过任何故意不当行为。”
沙利文-克伦威尔拒绝讨论南方煤炭案或麦克唐纳的参与情况。一位司法部官员表示，辩护律师质疑此案是常见做法。
“归根结底，这是一起出于政治动机的起诉，此案本可以且应该通过民事方式解决，”这位司法部官员告诉CBS新闻。
现场国度案
法庭记录显示，在沙利文-克伦威尔任职期间，麦克唐纳还曾代表音乐演唱会主办方现场国度公司（Live Nation）就涉及Ticketmaster的反垄断案达成和解。
现场国度案于2024年拜登政府时期提起，得到了共和党和民主党州检察长的两党支持。据熟悉和解事宜的消息人士透露，今年早些时候，当现场国度通知将进行和解谈判时，司法部负责此案的律师和各州律师都感到意外。
“情况非常奇怪，”一位前司法部律师表示，“我们被告知要对整个和解谈判严格保密，仅限少数人知晓。”
政府与沙利文-克伦威尔之间的和解谈判在该律所位于曼哈顿的办公室进行，由未参与审判团队的司法部官员主持。消息人士称，各州检察长被排除在会议之外，在大厅等候了数小时。
“我们有人在场准备参与对话，但从未被纳入其中，”加利福尼亚州总检察长罗布·邦塔的高级法律顾问埃莉诺·布卢姆说道。
布卢姆补充道，此案的处理方式“表明这是一个极具政治性的决定”。
一位司法部官员表示，该和解协议“超出了往届政府的成果”，司法部的“首要关切是为消费者提供即时救济，而非承担不利判决或数年持续上诉诉讼的风险”。
除少数几个州外，绝大多数州都决定拒绝司法部与现场国度达成的和解协议，并继续推进案件审理。这些州最终胜诉，联邦陪审团在4月裁定现场国度运营非法垄断机构。
This law firm has deep ties to Trump. A partner is his pick to be Manhattan’s top prosecutor.
2026-06-17T17:39:00-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-jamie-mcdonald-sullivan-and-cromwell-sdny/
Washington— It was not yet 4 o’clock in the morning in Washington on Wednesday when President Trump, an ocean away at the G7 summit in France, issued a demand for Republican senators: James “Jamie” McDonald, his pick for U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, “must be confirmed” immediately.
“I may not be able to get the extraordinary Sullivan & Cromwell Partner, Jamie, approved, and I don’t want to take Jay Clayton away from the great job he is doing until Jamie is in place,” the president said on his Truth Social platform.
McDonald is Mr. Trump’s choice to helm one of the nation’s most prestigious federal prosecutors’ offices — known for its independence and tough enforcement of Wall Street malfeasance and other white-collar crimes. And he would succeed Jay Clayton,who has been tapped by the president to become the next director of national intelligence.
Though little known outside the power corridors of Washington and Manhattan, McDonald has been a notable force during Mr. Trump’s second term. At Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the world’s largest law firms, where Clayton also once worked as a partner, McDonald has played a central role in persuading the Justice Department to drop or settle a string of high-profile cases for the firm’s corporate clients, according to court records and sources familiar with the matter.
Now, questions about his ability to maintain prosecutorial independence could play a central role in any confirmation review, Democratic Senate sources told CBS News, as Mr. Trump has sought to expedite his nomination.
Sullivan & Cromwell, where McDonald has worked since 2021, has emerged as a firm known for its close relationships with the White House during Mr. Trump’s second term.
Law firms have long sought to make use of close relationships at the Justice Department to assist their clients, which many lawyers consider zealous advocacy. But there are growing questions among senior lawyers at other big law firms and career prosecutors about whether Sullivan & Cromwell’s clients “are getting favorable treatment at the Justice Department — not because the facts of the law compel it,” but because some of the firm’s senior partners are aligned with the president, as one former Justice Department official who worked in a Democratic administration put it.
“Sullivan & Cromwell understands the D.C. game and knows that staying close to the president is the best way to navigate the current environment,” another former Justice Department official who worked in the second Trump administration told CBS News.
On Saturday, the president said in a social media post that he is confident McDonald — a former federal prosecutor and regulator — “will deliver strong results for our Country.”
The future of both Clayton’s and McDonald’s nominations is in flux after the president directed Clayton not to appear for a planned confirmation hearing on Wednesday, upending Senate Republicans’ plans to quickly install Clayton and resolve a standoff with Democrats.
Sullivan & Cromwell has more than a dozen offices across the globe and is headquartered in Manhattan. Its managing partner, Robert Giuffra, was at one point considered a contender to be Mr. Trump’s attorney general during his second term, sources familiar with the transition said.
“Sullivan & Cromwell is one of the great institutions in our city,” John Catsimatidis, a Manhattan billionaire who is friends with Mr. Trump, told CBS News.
Both McDonald and Giuffra represented Mr. Trump in past private matters. The firm is representing the president in his appeal of his criminal conviction for hiding a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, as well as Mr. Trump’s appeal in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
And when Mr. Trump issued an executive order against the powerful law firm Paul, Weiss that could have crippled its access to the government, it was Giuffra who helped broker a deal between a business rival and the White House to drop the directive in exchange for the firm pledging $40 million in pro bono services. He did so alongside Boris Epshteyn, Mr. Trump’s personal attorney who has coordinated his legal defense strategy.
McDonald joined Sullivan & Cromwell after serving as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York until 2017 and then as director of enforcement for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an agency that regulates commodity and derivatives markets and pursues civil enforcement actions for violations.
Chris Giancarlo, who headed the CFTC during Mr. Trump’s first term, said he hired McDonald because he wanted someone who would be tough on enforcement. Giancarlo said he liked McDonald’s background as a prosecutor who pursued public corruption and organized crime cases.
“He is strong, but fair,” Giancarlo told CBS News. “He doesn’t wear politics on his sleeve. To the extent people are concerned about political motivations, there is none of that with Jamie.”
The Adani case
More recently, Giuffra and McDonald have found extraordinary success brokering other deals between their clients who are facing investigations by law enforcement arms of the administration.
In May, the Justice Department’s unusual decision to ask a judge to dismiss criminal fraudand foreign bribery charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other defendants came after negotiations led by Sullivan & Cromwell.
The Adani case was slated to proceed, after it survived a review ordered by Mr. Trump into all pending foreign bribery matters to determine whether they should be dismissed, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Before the motion to dismiss the case, senior Justice Department officials met with McDonald, Giuffra and Andrew DeFilippis of Sullivan & Cromwell, sources said.
In one such meeting at the Justice Department, Giuffra made a presentation that disputed evidence of the alleged bribery scheme, according to sources familiar with the matter and records reviewed by CBS News. One slide touted how one of Adani’s companies is “powering India’s progress,” and another slide said the Trump administration “would not have brought the case.”
If prosecutors were to drop the charges, Giuffra also said at the meeting, Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy, sources said. The meeting and discussion about the investment were reported earlier by The New York Times.
Adani has since agreed to pay $18 million to settle a parallel civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. And in May, the Treasury Department announced that it had reached a $275 million settlement with an Adani Group subsidiary for apparent violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. The subsidiary, Adani Enterprises, purchased shipments of liquefied petroleum gas sourced from Iran, the U.S. government said.
Both SEC and Treasury Department officials were also involved in meetings with the attorneys from Sullivan & Cromwell, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
CBS News has reached out for comment to the SEC and Treasury Department.
In May, just days after the government filed the motion to dismiss the Justice Department’s case against Adani, two prosecutors assigned to the case abruptly withdrew from it, according to court records. The motion did not include signatures from career prosecutors who brought the case, a departure from common practice that signaled dissent.
Democrats have since launched an investigation into the Justice Department’s decision to drop the Adani case. In a June 11 letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut questioned what they called the “transactional nature” of the decision to dismiss the case. The lawmakers suggested that Adani’s offer to invest $10 billion in U.S. energy and infrastructure projects smacked of a “quid pro quo.”
“I have serious concerns about a Trump loyalist who played a key role in the Adani dismissal serving in a critical U.S. Attorney role,” Warren told CBS News.
In a statement shared with CBS News, a spokesperson for Sullivan & Cromwell said that Giuffra, McDonald and all partners at the firm “have devoted their careers to and built their reputations on being exceptionally effective advocates for our clients, without regard to the administration in Washington.”
“Sullivan & Cromwell is hired to handle the most significant and challenging cases because we have the finest lawyers in the profession, and to suggest that the success of our firm and our partners is the result of anything other than the most rigorous legal argument and factual analysis and our judgment and experience is simply wrong,” the statement added.
A Justice Department official said that the department “often meets with outside counsel to discuss pending cases and potential resolutions to assure the best possible outcome for the American people” and that the decision to dismiss the case came after many months of discussion with the company’s lawyers and an internal review.
The Southern Coal case
McDonald was also one of the lawyers involved in convincing the Justice Department to drop a non-public criminal investigation into Southern Coal, a Roanoke-based coal mining company run by the son of Republican Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The investigation was sparked by concerns that Southern Coal was doctoring water testing reports required under a longstanding consent decree with the Justice Department and several states, one of the sources said. ProPublica reported earlier on the closure of the case, but McDonald’s role has not been previously reported.
Following meetings between Justice Department officials in the deputy attorney general’s office and lawyers for Southern Coal, including McDonald, the Justice Department instructed prosecutors to close the investigation, one of the sources said.
The investigation was still in its early stages when it was closed, the source said. A spokesperson for the Justice family’s legal team declined to comment.
In a statement to ProPublica earlier this month, Steven Ruby, an attorney for the Justice companies, said, “Ultimately the finding of the inquiry by the government was that there wasn’t any evidence to pursue criminal charges,” adding, “There’s never been any intentional wrongdoing by the companies.”
Sullivan & Cromwell declined to discuss the Southern Coal case or McDonald’s involvement. A Justice Department official said the defense attorneys followed a common practice by challenging the case.
“The bottom line is that this was a politically motivated prosecution for a case that can and should be resolved civilly,” the Justice Department official told CBS News.
The Live Nation case
During his time at Sullivan & Cromwell, McDonald also represented music concert promoter Live Nation as it settled an antitrust case involving Ticketmaster, court records show.
The Live Nation case, filed in 2024 during the Biden administration, had bipartisan support among Republican and Democratic state attorneys general.Attorneys at the Justice Department who worked on the Live Nation case and attorneys for the states were surprised when they were notified earlier this year by Live Nation that settlement discussions would take place, according to sources familiar with the settlement.
“It was a very strange situation,” said a former Justice Department attorney. “We were told to keep the whole settlement discussions very tight and very close to the vest.”
Negotiations for the settlement between the government and Sullivan & Cromwell took place at the law firm’s offices in Manhattan, handled by Justice Department officials who did not work on the trial team. State attorneys general were left out of the meeting and remained in the lobby for several hours, sources said.
“We had people who were there and ready to join the conversation and were never included,” said Eleanor Blume, a senior legal adviser to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Blume added that the case’s handling “points to this being an extremely political decision.”
A Justice Department official said that the settlement “exceeded the outcomes of previous administrations” and that the department’s “overriding interest was providing immediate relief for consumers rather than risk an adverse decision or years of continued appellate litigation.”
All but a small handful of states decided to reject the settlement between the Justice Department and Live Nation, and continued to try the case. They prevailed, with a federal jury finding in April that Live Nation was liable for operating an illegal monopoly.
