William K. Rashbaum and Ben Protess

The code of silence, followed by the lawyers and agents who worked for Mueller, has been an unusual feat in Washington, where leaks are as ubiquitous as partisan bickering. And Greg D. Andres was not interested in being the exception.

Andres, one of Mueller’s senior prosecutors, agreed to an interview with The Times this week to discuss his return to New York law firm Davis Polk &amp; Wardwell, where he will be a partner. He said he was proud of the work in the special counsel’s office, in the first public comments from a member of Mueller’s team since the report was issued.

But he declined to discuss even trivial aspects of his experience working for Mueller. Over the course of an hour, Andres, wearing a trim blue suit and with a broken foot strapped into a black plastic boot, politely rebuffed one question after another.

What did he work on, besides taking the lead prosecution role in the trial of Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort? No comment.

What ran through his head when the president took aim at the special counsel’s team on Twitter — calling them “angry Democrats” conducting a “witch hunt?” He again declined to answer.

Andres would not even explain how the members of Mueller’s team were able to stay so quiet amid the public obsession with their work, when it seemed like their every move was watched.

He would say only, “It was a great privilege for me to work with those people and those teams, and it was a particular privilege to work for Bob Mueller, who I have great respect for and is a man of great integrity.”

The trappings of the job were not glamorous. One of 19 lawyers who worked on the investigation at its peak, Andres spent part of his stint living in a Westin hotel room, across the street from the Virginia federal courthouse where Manafort was convicted on financial fraud charges. Andres, a triathlete, was known to snack on Lay’s potato chips and Diet Coke. He and his colleagues conducted the broader investigation out of a building two blocks south of the National Mall, in a largely colorless section of Washington.

Andres, 52, is among several members of the Mueller team who came from private practice, and he is believed to be the first to return.

Most of the lawyers were temporarily assigned to the inquiry from other posts in the Justice Department, and many are returning to U.S. attorneys’ offices and other department jobs; at least one other prosecutor is going into private practice. One will teach at a law school.

At Davis Polk, where Andres was a partner before joining the special counsel’s team in August 2017, he will return to handle white-collar defense and other litigation. During his time in Washington, he lived in a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment near Union Station, a short walk from the special counsel’s office and a location that would hasten his Amtrak commute home to New York on weekends to see his wife — a federal judge — and their three daughters. Andres said he is happy “to be home.”

Before joining the firm, Andres spent a dozen years at the Justice Department, 10 of them as a prosecutor at the office of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. There, he eventually rose to head the office’s Criminal Division.

He had handled scores of cases against organized crime figures, playing a central role in an effort that gutted the Bonanno crime family and led to the convictions of more than 70 mobsters. He led the team that won murder and racketeering convictions against the Bonanno boss, Joseph C. Massino, who in 2005, facing the death penalty, became the first Mafia chieftain to testify against his own family.

Massino revealed at the time that Andres’ success against the Bonannos had not gone unnoticed. He told the FBI that the family’s then acting boss, Vincent Basciano, known as Vinny Gorgeous, had plotted to kill Andres and the federal judge who oversaw Basciano’s trial.

Andres spent his final two years at the Justice Department in Washington, working as a deputy assistant attorney general, overseeing the Criminal Division’s sections for fraud, organized crime and gangs, death penalty cases, and appeals. He helped oversee some of the earliest efforts to prosecute crimes arising from the 2008 financial crisis.

Now, he will be defending some of the same types of companies and executives.

“No one is really better at getting to the heart of complex financial issues, and that includes convincing the government when it doesn’t have a case,” said Neil MacBride, the former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who is now the co-head of Davis Polk’s white-collar defense group.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/nyregion/mueller-investigation-greg-andres.html" id="277cfe02-1c6b-3cd7-aabe-78c3921193ad">The New York Times</a>.

A Mueller Investigator Moves On (but Stays Mum)

In the span of his 22-month investigation into President Donald Trump, Robert Mueller never held a news conference. When he delivered his report to the Justice Department in March, the special counsel issued no statements. Even this week, when Attorney General William Barr criticized aspects of the investigation, no one from Mueller’s team responded.

The subpoena was served late Monday on the company, Aon, one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the world, as part of an inquiry by the New York state Department of Financial Services.

It came just days after Michael D. Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, indicated in congressional testimony that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its assets to insurance companies.

The subpoena is the latest sign that the Trump Organization is facing scrutiny from multiple fronts — federal prosecutors, congressional Democrats, and now, insurance regulators.

The Department of Financial Services does not conduct criminal investigations, nor does it have authority over Trump or the Trump Organization, but it can refer any possible illegal activity to prosecutors.

The federal prosecutors in Manhattan have been investigating the Trump Organization’s role in hush money payments to women who claimed to have affairs with Trump. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal crimes in connection with those payments, has also told the prosecutors about irregularities in the company’s insurance practices, The New York Times reported last month.

While the prosecutors are largely viewed as independent, the president and his allies have dismissed much of the other scrutiny as politically motivated.

The subpoena from the state agency that regulates insurance, which is part of the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat and vocal critic of Trump, landed on the same day that even broader scrutiny came to bear on the president, his administration and his business from House Democrats.

The House Judiciary Committee on Monday unleashed a blizzard of 81 letters demanding documents from people and businesses, including Trump’s company and several of his family members, kicking off the committee’s sweeping investigation into possible obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power by Trump.

The subpoena that was served on Aon contains no indication that the company or any of its employees engaged in misconduct, the person said. Nor does it specify any possible wrongdoing that is the focus of the inquiry by state regulators.

Insurance brokers such as Aon help companies evaluate their risk and connect them with underwriters, the companies that offer the actual coverage. For this service, the brokers receive a fee or commission, usually paid by the client.

The nine-page subpoena demands a broad range of materials regarding Aon’s business with Trump and the Trump Organization dating back to 2009, according to the person briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Among other things, it seeks copies of all communications between Aon and Trump and the Trump Organization, as well as all internal Aon documents relating to Trump and the company, the person said.

The regulators are also looking at compensation for the current and former Aon employees who handled the Trump Organization account, seeking information about their incentives, bonus payments or commissions. They are seeking similar contracts and agreements between Aon and Trump.

The Trump Organization and Aon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Financial Services declined to comment.

The Department of Financial Services is a powerful agency that regulates and supervises the insurance industry — including brokers, brokerage firms and underwriters in New York — as well as banking and other financial institutions.

The agency’s authority is limited to civil regulatory actions, although it can refer possible criminal conduct to the office of a local district attorney or the state Attorney General.

However, under the New York state insurance law, the department, headed by Acting Superintendent Linda A. Lacewell, can take action against the companies and individuals it regulates, including brokers and underwriters. It can issue fines or a range of other penalties, including revoking their licenses to do business in New York.

This is not the first time that the agency has examined the business practices involving the Trump Organization. In 2017, the agency scrutinized the company’s long relationship with Deutsche Bank, which the agency regulates and which is one of the president’s few lenders on Wall Street. The examination concluded without the agency taking any action against the bank.

Cohen’s testimony, however, provides additional fuel to advance the insurance inquiry.

At a hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee last week, when asked by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whether the president ever inflated his assets to an insurance company, Cohen simply replied, “Yes.”

The New York regulators are requesting copies of the insurance policies ultimately issued to Trump and the Trump Organization, as well as applications and financial statements used to secure the policies, the person said.

The subpoena requests that the materials — undoubtedly a vast swath of documents, data, emails, policies and other records — be turned over by March 19. The regulators will likely then issue additional subpoenas or requests to the underwriters and possibly other companies and individuals identified in response to this subpoena.

It could take the agency’s investigators months to analyze all the information they collect.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/nyregion/trump-aon-risk-services-subpoena.html" id="85a184b2-a91b-3b59-a9e6-62c205f3ac0f">The New York Times</a>.

New York state regulators have issued an expansive subpoena to the Trump Organization’s longtime insurance broker, the first step in an investigation of insurance policies and claims involving President Donald Trump’s family business, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Trump Organization's Insurance Policies Under Scrutiny in New York

<h1>New York state regulators have issued an expansive subpoena to the Trump Organization’s longtime insurance broker, the first step in an investigation of insurance policies and claims involving President Donald Trump’s family business, according to the company and a person briefed on the matter.</h1>

A spokeswoman for Aon, Donna Mirandola, said the company intended to cooperate, adding: “We do not comment on specific client matters.” The White House referred a request for comment to the Trump Organization, which did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Financial Services declined to comment.

This article originally appeared in <a id="04904a07-211b-4876-bac5-5fd888b42eee" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/nyregion/trump-aon-risk-services-subpoena.html">The New York Times</a>.

Trump Businesses Draw Scrutiny From New York Over Insurance Policies

The subpoena was served late Monday on the company, Aon, one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the world, as part of an inquiry by the New York state Department of Financial Services.

Trump businesses draw scrutiny from New York over insurance policies

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William K. Rashbaum and Ben Protess

Articles written by the author

A Mueller Investigator Moves On (but Stays Mum)

A Mueller Investigator Moves On (but Stays Mum)

Trump Organization's Insurance Policies Under Scrutiny in New York

Trump businesses draw scrutiny from New York over insurance policies