An Epstein Becker & Green partner in Washington is joining the legal team defending Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman charged with money laundering and other offenses arising from the special counsel's Russia investigation.

Richard W. Westling, a litigation and health care partner in the firm's Washington and Nashville offices, filed a notice of appearance Wednesday evening in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Westling joined Epstein Becker in June from Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis, where he was a partner.

Westling once worked as a federal prosecutor in the New Orleans U.S. attorney's office and at Main Justice, where he served in the tax division in the early 1990s.

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In the private sector, Westling has focused on healthcare compliance and “regularly interacts with various health care regulatory agencies,” according to the Epstein Becker Green website. Westling's clients include hospitals and health systems, according to his LinkedIn page.

Westling was at one time co-lead defense counsel for Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr., who was impeached on claims that included his participation in a kickback scheme with a law firm. At the time, in 2010, Westling was a partner at Ober Kaler Grimes & Shriver, where he was chair of the government investigations and white-collar defense team. The firm has since merged with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.

Westling reportedly stopped representing Porteous because he was representing two witnesses against the judge in a separate matter.

Westling did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Another defense lawyer for Manafort, Kevin Downing, was not immediately reached for comment.

Manafort's hiring of Westling comes as the Mueller team ratchets up the pressure on the former Trump campaign chairman. Last month, Manafort's longtime associate Rick Gates pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators as part of a deal that requires him to cooperate with the special counsel probe.

A week before that guilty plea, Mueller's team filed separate financial fraud charges against Manafort and Gates in Alexandria federal court. Manafort's trial on those charges is set to begin July 10 before Judge T.S. Ellis in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Manafort faces the “very real possibility,” as Ellis recently put it, “of spending the rest of his life in prison.” Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing, has called the charges in Washington “ridiculous.”

On Wednesday, Downing and defense lawyer Thomas Zehnle filed papers in Washington asking U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to dismiss the criminal charges.

“The original and superseding indictments do not focus in the slightest on alleged coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election,” Manafort's lawyers wrote in their motion to dismiss.

Manafort has a pending civil suit in Washington arguing against the scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. The Justice Department has rebuffed the argument and urged a trial judge to dismiss the case.

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