Mike Purpura Bio, Wiki

Mike Purpura is an American lawyer who serves as deputy White House counsel and is part of the team defending President Donald Trump in the impeachment trial in the Senate. He joined the White House staff around the same time as Pat Cipollone in late 2018. Purpura previously served in the counsel’s office under former Republican President George W. Bush. At present, Purpura is a deputy White House counsel.

Mike Purpura Education

Purpura studied economics at the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1987 to 1991. He then went to Columbia Law School in 1994 and earned his JD in 1997.

Mike Purpura Career

After graduating from law school, Mike got a job as a judicial law clerk in New York. He worked for one year in the same position from 1997 to 1998. Before becoming Chief Legal Officer, Purpura served in many other positions and different firms. He has gained experience working as an Associate under Davis Polk and Wardwell LLP from the year 1998 to 2000.

From 2000, Purpura worked in the position of Assistant U.S Attorney in the U.S attorney’s office till 2004. He also has experience in the same position at the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Hawaii for a year in 2005. In 2005, Purpura was appointed as the Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice till the year 2007.

He also got the position of Associate Counsel to President at the White House starting from May 2007 to December 2008. Purpura was also a partner in Carlsmith Ball LLP for eight years and has now been serving as the Chief legal officer in the Blacksand Capital since November 2017.

Mike Purpura Age

Purpura was born Michael Purpura in 1970 He has however not revealed his day and month of birth hence it is not known when he celebrates his birthday. He is 54 years old.

Mike Purpura Height

Purpura stands at a height of 5 feet 9 inches.

Mike Purpura Family

Purpura was raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, where his father ran the shoe department at a clothing store after graduating from Wheeling Central High School, according to the local newspaper. He has however not revealed the names of his parents or siblings.

Mike Purpura Wife

Purpura is married to Elizabeth “Betsy” Somerville a former tennis player. The couple relocated from Honolulu to the Washington, D.C. area when Purpura accepted the White House job. His wife grew up in Hawaii and the couple appears to have been back and forth between Hawaii and the east coast over the past two decades.

Mike Purpura Net Worth

Purpura has an estimated net worth of over $500 thousand dollars which he has earned through his successful career as a lawyer.

Mike Purpura Trump Impeachment

Mike Purpura along with other team members has been appointed as the defense lawyer for President Donald Trump’s Impeachment case. He is the Deputy Counsel on the team. As approved by the House President Trump has been charged with the abuse of power and Obstruction of Congress so a team of lawyers has been hired along with him to fight against those charges and free the President against the charges.

The lawyers began their defense on Saturday and then continued their defense on Monday. On Monday, the Lawyers for President Trump sought to lessen the impact of the news of former national security adviser John Bolton’s firsthand account of a conversation in which the president linked U.S. military aid to Ukraine with an announcement of an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Mike Purpura said in his presentation on Monday (the second day of the president’s defense in his Senate trial), “There was no linkage between investigations and security assistance or a meeting on the July 25 call. The Ukrainians said there was no quid pro quo and they felt no pressure.”

He also portrayed the president’s decision to withhold nearly $400 million in aid allocated by Congress to Ukraine as unsurprising, saying, “The pause in the Ukraine security assistance program was far from unusual or out of character for President Trump.”

Purpura is working with other attorneys who will also represent President Donald Trump in the impeachment hearing case. Below is a list of the defense team in Trump’s impeachment.

1. Pat Cipollone (team lead)
   Pat Cipollone is an American lawyer who serves as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump.
2. Patrick Philbin
   Patrick Philbin is an American lawyer who serves as Deputy Counsel to the President and Deputy Assistant to the President in the Office of White House Counsel in the Donald Trump administration.
3. Jay Sekulow
   Jay Sekulow is chief counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ).
4. Pam Bondi
   Pam Bondi is an American attorney and politician who served as the 37th Florida Attorney General from 2011 to 2019.
5. Eric Herschmann
   Eric Herschmann is an American Lawyer who is a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, a New York law firm that has represented Trump several times over the last decade and beyond.
6. Robert Ray
7. Jane Raskin
8. Alan Dershowitz
9. Ken Starr

The table below answers some of the frequently asked questions about Purpura.