Donald Trump claimed that many lawyers and "top law firms" want to work for him in the ongoing Russian investigation. Despite his claims that he is very popular among the lawyers, he will not be hiring the two lawyers that were named last week as additions to his legal team for the Russia case.
On Thursday, Trump's lawyer John Dowd left the president's legal team. Days earlier, it appeared that Trump would hire cable news commentator and former US attorney Joseph DiGenova and DiGenova's wife and law partner Victoria Toensing. Dowd called for the Robert Mueller investigation to be shut down days before. Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement on Sunday, "The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team." A concern for a conflict of interest came up when Toensing represented former spokesman for the president’s legal team Mark Corallo. The president also apparently complained that there was no personal chemistry with DiGenova and Toensing, according to two sources cited by The New York Times.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted, "Don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on. Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted. He added, "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 and I am very happy with my existing team."
