Less than a year after leaving his New York law firm to join the Trump administration, David Friedman can boast a remarkable achievement: helping to guide the president’s historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the U.S. embassy there.

Along with Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, a real estate lawyer who was chief legal officer to Trump’s companies and now serves as an informal Middle East envoy, Friedman has been credited with steering the administration’s controversial move Wednesday.

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