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Leah Millis | Reuters
President Donald Trump takes part in a forum called Generation Next at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2018.
As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation inches closer to Donald Trump, the president has been increasingly hard pressed to fill out his legal team.
By the end of March, just two key players remained: Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow.
Cobb, who was appointed in July, represents the White House and handles the special counsel’s probe into matters related to links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Sekulow, who often acts as a public face for the team, has been working for Trump from outside the White House since June.
In further signs of trouble, a host of high-powered attorneys, including Theodore Olsen and Robert Bennett, have turned down offers to represent the president.
Trump lashed out over the apparent lack of interest from lawyers in a pair of tweets on Sunday. The staffing troubles, he said, merely stem from the difficulty of joining a complex case in progress. But he noted that conflicts of interest are also playing a role in his hiring woes.
Trump tweet: Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case…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. Problem is that a new……
Trump tweet: ….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. Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!
To be sure, the two holdouts on the president’s team are still supported by teams of legal experts. Sekulow, for instance, commands a handful of lawyers through his nonprofit, the American Center for Law and Justice.
Defending a client — even a U.S. president — against a special counsel with significant resources and legal powers can be a daunting task. And as the reported possibility of a face-to-face interview looms, a spot on Trump’s team might look less propitious to potential hires.
Here’s a running list of the people who have left, or declined to join, Trump’s legal team:
