Eric Herschmann (born May 7, 1962) is an American political advisor and attorney who served as a senior advisor to former President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

Legal career

Herschmann served as a partner at

Kasowitz Benson Torres Kasowitz, Benson & Torres is a New York law firm founded in 1993. It employs 350 lawyers and maintains offices in several states. The firm focuses on product liability litigation, corporate, family and employment law, as well as intellectual prop ...

from 1996 until 2020 when he left the firm to accept an appointment in the White House. During his time at the firm, he was associated with

Southern Union Company Southern Union Company was a natural gas utility and energy resources company based in Houston, Texas. In 2012, the company was acquired by Energy Transfer Partners. The company owned and operated more than of gathering and transportation pipel ...

, serving as counsel and in various executive positions for the company from 1997 until 2012. He also represented

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

's corporate audit department. Previous to his work at Kasowitz Benson Torres, Herschmann was an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan's DA's Office.

Advisor to Donald Trump

Herschmann served as one of President Trump's attorneys during his first impeachment trial in 2019 and 2020, giving several presentations in the U.S. Senate chamber. In August 2020, he left his firm to join the White House with the title Senior Advisor to the President, with a portfolio described as "hazy" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. While at the White House, Herschmann was involved in the

Hunter Biden laptop controversy In late 2020, a controversy emerged involving data from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that was abandoned at a Delaware computer shop. The data was subsequently shared with the FBI, Republican operatives, and later the press. Forensic anal ...

, providing a reporter from ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' with emails allegedly from Hunter Biden's laptop. Towards the end of Trump's term, Herschmann was involved in high-level meetings about possible investigations into voter fraud in the 2020 elections. After his White House tenure ended, Axios reported on one such meeting Herschmann attended in the

Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the President of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is located in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval-shaped room ...

. "Do you even know who the fuck I am, you idiot," he is reported to have asked former Overstock.com CEO

Patrick M. Byrne Patrick Michael Byrne (born November 29, 1962) is an American businessman. In 1999, Byrne launched Overstock.com after leading two smaller companies. Byrne led Overstock as chief executive officer for two decades, from 1999 to 2019. In 2002, Byrne ...

, who was in the meeting suggesting election conspiracy theories to the president, only to have Byrne mis-identify Herschmann as

White House Counsel The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...

Pat Cipollone Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone (born May 6, 1966) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump. Early life Cipollone's father was an Italian immigrant and factory worker; his mother was a homemaker. He ...

. According to the account, Byrne suggested using "guys with big guns and badges" to seize voting machines and Herschmann responded, "What are you, three years old?" With respect to Trump election lawyer Sidney Powell's self-described "release the

Kraken The kraken () is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear off the coasts of Norway. Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern age at the turn of the 18th century, in a travelogu ...

" strategy to overturn the election, Herschmann reportedly asked her rhetorically, "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

Testimony to January 6 committee

Despite having a low profile during his time as a White House advisor, Herschmann gained greater notoriety from the June 23, 2022, fifth, January 6 committee public hearing which featured a video replay of his June 13, 2022, testimony. Herschmann described events leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol to the committee in testimony with blunt and colorful terms. "What they were proposing, I thought, was nuts," Herschmann said of the claims of voter fraud pushed by some of Trump's attorneys. "Are you out of your effing mind? You're completely crazy," Herschmann claims he said to Trump attorney

John Eastman John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American lawyer who is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the conservative think tank Claremont Institute. He is a former profe ...

about the so-called

Eastman memos The Eastman memos, also known as the "coup memo", are documents by John Eastman, an American law professor retained by then-President Donald Trump advancing the fringe legal theory that the U.S. Vice President has unilateral authority to rejec ...

. "Get a great f'ing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it," Herschmann testified he told Eastman on the phone of Eastman's plan to overturn the 2020 election results, "and then I hung up on him." Herschmann testified that he told Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark "good, effing A-hole, congratulations. You just admitted your first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony," after learning of his plan to be installed as acting Attorney General and send out a letter to state officials with false accusations of voter fraud. Political reporters commented on the three works of art, on the wall behind Herschmann, during his virtual testimony before the congressional committee, including a baseball bat with the word "justice" printed on it, by Sebastian ErraZuriz, three chrome-colored sculptures by Tal Frank, and a painting by Rob Pruitt, that resembled an artwork featured in the erotic film '' Fifty Shades of Grey.'' After the testimony of

Cassidy Hutchinson Cassidy Jacqueline Hutchinson is an American former White House aide and assistant to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration. Hutchinson testified on June 28, 2022, at the public hearings of the United States House S ...

before the January 6 Committee, a spokesman for Herschmann claimed without evidence "that a handwritten note regarding a potential statement for then-President

to release during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was written by him during a meeting at the White House that afternoon, and not by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson."

Trump documents investigation

On September 19, 2022, ''

'' reported that in late 2021, Herschmann had attempted to warn President Trump of his legal exposure for possible mishandling of classified documents. Trump would later fall under investigation by the FBI for the issue.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herschmann, Eric 1962 births Living people Senior Advisors to the President of the United States