With his legal team seemingly in disarray, President Donald Trump took to social media early Sunday to boast that “many lawyers want to represent me in the Russia case.”
Despite the recent resignation of his lead personal lawyer, John Dowd, Trump blamed all the confusion concerning his legal team squarely on the shoulders of the media in his early-morning Twitter rant.
“Don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,” he tweeted. “Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted. Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country.”
Trump later added that he remains more than content with the dwindling legal team he already has assembled.
“I am very happy with my existing team,” he tweeted. “Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!”
According to the Hill , Dowd’s exit comes as Trump considers a top-to-bottom shakeup of his legal team as his frustration with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of potential Russian meddling in the 2016 election and his campaign’s possible involvement continues to mount.
The swirling accusations have continued to dog the administration ever since Trump took over the White House in early 2017.
Just last week, Trump moved to add Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who has been highly critical of the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), to his legal team, but on Sunday, the New York Times reported that the plan had been scuttled because of perceived conflicts of interest.
“The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team,” Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement. “However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.”
