Right after announcing that he would be adding new lawyers to his Legal Defense Team, to oppose Robert Mueller’s Russia Investigation, more shakeups have hit. John Dowd, the leader of the team, resigned, and hiring of top legal talent derailed.
“It’s just astonishing where things stand,” said former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman. Litman who is now is a lecturer at School of Law of the University of California Los Angeles, added “You simply must have a strategy that you are following through on. He has literally nothing and, as far as we can tell, even the personnel decisions seem to be taken by watching Fox News.”
On Sunday, it was announced that lawyers, diGenova and Toensing would not – in fact – be joining Trump’s personal legal team. In response to this announcement, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a media briefing on Monday said, “the President has a highly qualified team with several individuals that have been part of this process.”
Further, President Trump tweeted “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.”
In regard to this, Trump also said that if any new additions are made in the legal team at this point then it could take months for the lawyers to “get up to speed” which would be “unfair to our great country.”
“Andrea Mitchell Reports”
On the other hand, some high-profile lawyers claim that they have been offered to become part of Trump’s legal team, but have declined. One such claim was by Ted Olson, who stated that the President’s style of governance and the changes that he has made in the White House have added to the “turmoil.”
“It’s chaos, it’s confusion, it’s not good for anything,” Olsen was quoted saying.
Another such attorney is Mark Zaid, who in the past has represented a number of Congress members from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
“I don’t have the time, energy or patience to babysit a client who ignores my expertise and opinions,” said Zaid, while adding that his refusal “has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the client. This is a client who is out of control, who tweets incessantly, who argues with his lawyers and disobeys his lawyers.”
Zaid who is a strong critic of the President believes that the dust risen up because of the refusal by multiple lawyers to join Trump’s personal legal team will soon settle. “Once he finds counsel who sticks with him, the stories of all the people who refused to represent him are a non-issue,” said Zaid.
On a side note, there is another issue that the general public should ponder over – the remarks of Mark Zaid and those of many others, about the President. Zaid like any other American is of course entitled to his own opinions and has freedom of speech; however, is it right for a prominent attorney from Washington can publically insult the President of his country?
Coming back to the topic at hand… Trump’s legal team is said to continue their on-going strategy in the Mueller probe, despite speculations that Trump will employ a more aggressive approach. “We are continuing to maintain a cooperative approach and a cooperative relationship with the office of the special counsel,” clarified Jay Sekulow, who is a part of Trump’s personal legal team.
