Boris Epshteyn: Career, Indictments, and Ethics Complaints

Boris Epshteyn is a Russian-born attorney and longtime Donald Trump adviser who, as of mid-2026, serves as Trump’s senior personal counsel, chairs the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, and speaks with the president nearly every day.¹ He is also under felony indictment in Arizona over the 2020 fake electors scheme, the subject of a New York ethics complaint, and the focus of multiple congressional inquiries into whether he has traded proximity to the president for private payments.²

From Brooklyn to Trump’s Inner Circle

Epshteyn was born in Moscow and moved to Brooklyn at age 11 when his family immigrated to the United States as Jewish refugees in 1993.³ He graduated from Georgetown University in 2004 and later earned a law degree from Georgetown Law.⁴ In 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, he described working in investment banking and real estate since 2009 and holding interests in New York restaurants through family LLCs.

He worked on John McCain’s presidential campaign and was a surrogate for Mitt Romney, and he connected with the Trump family through a Georgetown friendship with Eric Trump. He first met Donald Trump at Eric Trump’s 2014 wedding.³

Epshteyn joined Trump’s 2016 campaign as a combative television surrogate. After the election, he was given the title of special assistant to the president and assistant communications director for surrogate operations, but the White House job lasted barely two months. He was pushed out in March 2017, with a senior official saying only that they were “exploring other opportunities” for him and reporting at the time citing a “contentious relationship with television producers.”⁵

He then landed at Sinclair Broadcast Group as its chief political analyst, where his “Bottom Line with Boris” commentary segments were mandated to run across all of Sinclair’s roughly 190 stations. Sinclair ended its political commentary in December 2019, and his last segment aired December 13, 2019.⁶

Coordinating Trump’s Legal Defense

Epshteyn rejoined Trump’s political operation for the 2020 campaign and by 2022 was coordinating multiple legal teams representing Trump across four pending criminal prosecutions and the House January 6th Committee investigation.⁷ He sat beside Trump during the 2024 New York criminal trial and appeared on stage during Trump’s election night victory speech.⁸

Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, paid Epshteyn’s firm Georgetown Advisory $120,000 for “strategy consulting services” in 2022, according to FEC filings.⁹ By 2024, the Trump campaign was paying the firm $53,500 per month for “communications and legal consulting.”¹⁰ His authority over legal strategy irritated attorneys with deeper courtroom credentials. One Trump legal team member, quoted by Politico, said: “I don’t know where he filed his law license. They must be selling them at 7-11.”

Arizona Fake Electors Indictment

In April 2024, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people over an alleged scheme to submit a fraudulent slate of Republican presidential electors to Congress after the 2020 election. Epshteyn was charged alongside Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, and 11 people who had signed the false elector certificates. Trump was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.²

Epshteyn faces nine felony counts, including conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, and forgery.¹¹ He pleaded not guilty at his June 2024 arraignment, as did all 18 defendants.²

The case has moved slowly. Defense attorneys argued successfully that prosecutors failed to present the full text of the Electoral Count Act to the grand jury, and in May 2025 Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers ruled prosecutors had to convene a new grand jury to proceed. Attorney General Kris Mayes lost her appeal at the Arizona Supreme Court. In November 2025, Trump issued federal pardons to the 11 fake electors and other allies, but a spokesperson for Mayes said the pardons had “no impact on the state’s case.”¹² In June 2026, Mayes announced she was dismissing the existing indictment as a legal maneuver and would seek a fresh one from a new grand jury. Three defendants had resolved their cases by then, one through a misdemeanor plea; Epshteyn was among 15 still under not-guilty pleas.¹³ The federal pardons do not reach state charges.

Pay-to-Play Allegations During the Transition

In November 2024, shortly after Trump won the election, transition lawyer David Warrington led an internal investigation into allegations that Epshteyn had solicited payments from people seeking administration roles or access.¹⁴

According to the reporting, Epshteyn proposed that Scott Bessent, Trump’s eventual pick for Treasury secretary, pay him to promote his candidacy. Bessent made no payments. In another instance, Epshteyn allegedly requested as much as $100,000 per month for his services. Former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens submitted a sworn declaration stating that a November 7, 2024, conversation with Epshteyn created “a sense of unease and pressure” and an “implicit expectation to engage in business dealings with him before he would advocate for or suggest my appointment to the President.”¹⁰

Investigators recommended that Epshteyn be removed from Trump’s proximity and barred from employment or payment by Trump entities. That recommendation was not adopted. Transition spokesman Steven Cheung said a “broad review” of consulting agreements had been “conducted and completed” and that the team was “moving on.”¹⁵ Epshteyn called the claims “fake” and “false and defamatory,” sent cease-and-desist messages, and threatened legal action.¹⁰

Role in the Second Trump Administration

His influence expanded after Trump took office in January 2025. A June 2026 Axios profile described him as one of the “five most powerful people around the president.” He visits the Oval Office roughly once a week and speaks with Trump “constantly” by phone, so often that the president sometimes puts him on speakerphone during meetings without telling other attendees. Trump has jokingly called him “my psychiatrist.”¹

In April 2026, he was appointed to the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social.¹⁶ He is reported to hold significant influence within the Justice Department through his relationship with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and he manages Trump’s civil defamation lawsuits against media companies. In the ABC case, Epshteyn pushed to increase what had been a $3 million settlement framework; the parties ultimately agreed on $16 million, with $15 million going to the Trump Presidential Library and $1 million in legal fees.¹⁷

Reviews from within the administration are mixed. White House communications director Steven Cheung has credited Epshteyn’s “pugnacity, longevity and loyalty,” and Steve Bannon called him the “guy who got it done” during the 2024 legal battles. Other advisers, quoted anonymously, described him as “100% hype man and cheering section for POTUS” and the “keeper of dog-sh*t ideas,” a reference to a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund Epshteyn reportedly championed. That fund, intended to compensate people who claimed unfair prosecution, drew bipartisan congressional outcry and was halted by a federal judge before being scrapped.¹¹⁸

The BigLaw Deals and Congressional Inquiry

In 2025, nine large law firms pledged nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services to the Trump administration, with Kirkland & Ellis alone reportedly promising $125 million. Democratic lawmakers say the agreements were reached after the firms were threatened with EEOC investigations into their diversity recruiting practices.¹⁹

In March 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Sen. Adam Schiff, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote to Kirkland & Ellis demanding all records related to its agreement with the administration and all communications with Epshteyn. The lawmakers called the arrangement a “corrupt bargain” and said Epshteyn, whom they described as a “Trump legal fixer,” had brokered the deal, citing his “demonstrated history of seeking private payments for official acts.”²⁰ According to a New York Times report cited in the letter, Kirkland went on to work on U.S. trade deals with Japan and Korea after Epshteyn connected the firm with administration officials.¹⁹

The New York Ethics Complaint

On March 16, 2026, the nonprofits Lawyers Defending American Democracy and the Democracy Defenders Fund, joined by a coalition of law professors and retired judges, filed an ethics complaint with the New York state courts’ ethics committee. The complaint alleged that Epshteyn was “at the center of Trump’s campaign to undermine the independence of the legal profession by intimidating and silencing major national law firms.” Principal author Mark Friedman said the BigLaw agreements had caused a “staggering retreat” from pro bono work on behalf of marginalized communities.²¹ As of mid-2026, no public response from the ethics committee had been reported.²²

The Adani Reporting

The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2025, the family of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani began inquiring about Epshteyn’s status as a Trump administration insider and eventually told associates that he was assisting in Adani’s defense against a 2024 federal fraud case. According to seven sources and internal records cited by the Journal, Epshteyn joined the defense effort by the summer of 2025, though he did not attend meetings with prosecutors and his name did not appear on legal filings. The Adani family’s primary legal representation was handled by Sullivan & Cromwell, a firm that also represents Trump.²³

Epshteyn has denied any relationship with Adani. In June 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal opened an investigation into the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Adani, calling it “transparent influence-peddling” and part of a broader “pattern of favorable treatment for Trump’s allies.”²⁴

Trump himself, asked about the pay-to-play allegations, said publicly that “no one can promise any endorsement or nomination except me.” With the Arizona case still unresolved, the New York ethics complaint pending, and two separate congressional inquiries active, the legal questions attached to Epshteyn’s role have not narrowed since he returned to Trump’s side.

1
Axios. Boris Epshteyn, Trump
2
PBS NewsHour. Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s Adviser, Pleads Not Guilty to 9 Felony Charges in Arizona’s Fake Elector Case
3
U.S. House of Representatives. Boris Epshteyn Testimony, September 28, 2017
4
The Hill. Who Is Boris Epshteyn, the Controversial Aide by Trump’s Side in Court
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The New York Times. Boris Epshteyn, White House Press Official, Is Let Go From His Job
6
The Washington Post. Sinclair TV Drops Pro-Trump Commentator Boris Epshteyn
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NBC News. Trump PAC Paid Law Firm Representing Boris Epshteyn in Fake Electors Case
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BBC News. Boris Epshteyn
9
Politico. Boris Epshteyn, Trump, Bannon Inner Circle
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CNN. Trump Lawyers Investigate Allegations Boris Epshteyn Financial Gain
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Arizona Attorney General. Indictment Redacted
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Arizona Mirror. Trump Pardons 11 Arizona Fake Electors as Attorney General Faces Deadline to Refile Her Case
13
PBS NewsHour. Arizona Prosecutors Dismissing Fake Elector Case but Vow to Seek New Indictment
14
PBS NewsHour. Transition Team Investigates Top Trump Adviser Over Pay-to-Play Allegations
15
Spectrum News. Trump Adviser Boris Epshteyn Pay-to-Play Allegations
16
Bloomberg. Trump Adviser, Fundraiser Snag Board Seats at Truth Social Firm
17
Deadline. Trump Regime Change Book, Five Takeaways
18
The New York Times. Trump Drop Weaponization Fund
19
Bloomberg Law. Kirkland Pressed by Democrats on Epshteyn’s Role in Trump Deal
20
U.S. House Democrats, Judiciary Committee. Ranking Member Raskin, Sens. Schiff and Blumenthal Probe Involvement of Notorious Trump Fixer’s Role in Brokering Deals
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Third Act. Just Do What You Can, Just Do Something
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Law360. Boris Epshteyn Targeted Over Trump Bid to Coerce BigLaw
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The Wall Street Journal. Boris Epshteyn, Indian Billionaire Adani
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U.S. Senate, Sen. Warren. Warren, Blumenthal Open Investigation Into DOJ’s Move to Drop Charges Against Billionaire