May 27, 2021: -An already contentious divorce case of a Connecticut state senator and her top Morgan Stanley executive husband gets even more complicated with the arrival of a high-powered new lawyer representing Melinda Gates in her mega-billion-dollar bust-up with the millionaire Bill Gates.

The new divorce lawyer, Robert Cohen, also repped two of Donald Trump’s wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.

Cohen is now working on the expanded legal team of Sen. Alex Kasser, D-Greenwich, which this week fired off a shot legally that threatens to draw other Morgan Stanley employees and the firm itself in the divorce case.

Kasser’s lawyers asked a judge to permit them to question three Morgan Stanley employees under oath after what they suggested the investment bank’s recent improper efforts to get financial information from her even as her estranged husband, Seth Bergstein, who is still working there as senior managing director and head of global services.

The employees working in the private wealth management and risk management divisions of Morgan Stanley in late April gave Kasser “untrue information” about FINRA regulations, court orders, and Connecticut state law as part of that effort, the filing says.

The inquiry was related to a joint account at Morgan Stanley that Kasser has shared for two decades with Bergstein. Firm employees claim it had been “red-flagged” and barred from receiving Kasser’s tax refund check “until we can confirm the account holder’s total net worth.”

“Defendant appears to have committed a crime by this knowing instruction to a subordinate to do an illegal act,” Cohen’s law partner, John Farley, is written in the filling.

That request to the notary is written in an email attached to a new court filing in Stamford, Connecticut, Superior Court, wherein the divorce trial of Bergstein and Kasser is set to take place in August.

Other emails submitted in court by Kasser’s lawyers indicate the shifting explanations Morgan Stanley employees gave her for their inquiries regarding the net worth and the lack of direct answers to questions Kasser posed to them about those inquiries.

“The Court should also be aware that improper use of the securities laws can have serious regulatory consequences for financial institutions and their employees,” Farley wrote.