President Trump will not be adding veteran DC lawyer Joe diGenova and his wife and law partner, Victoria Toensing, to his Russia investigation legal team after all.
NYT:
“The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team,” Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement on Sunday morning. “However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.”
(...)
The president met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, who are married, in recent days to discuss the possibility that they would join his legal team in the Mueller case. According to two people told of details about the meeting, the president did not believe he had personal chemistry with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing.
The conflicts Sekulow references include Toensing already having clients involved in the special counsel's investigation.
CNN:
Toensing also represents former Trump campaign national co-chair Sam Clovis, who has faced scrutiny for his connection to campaign foreign policy team member George Papadopoulos, two sources said. NBC News reported Clovis talked to the special counsel.
NYT:
... Ms. Toensing is representing Mark Corallo, who was the spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team in 2017 before they parted ways.
Mr. Corallo has told investigators he was concerned that a close aide to Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, may have been planning to obstruct justice during the drafting of a statement about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump took to Twitter from his Florida resort to insist that he faced no problems finding lawyers to represent him in the Russia investigation.
“Fame & fortune will never be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,” Mr. Trump said in a tweet.
The president insisted that “many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case,” and that reports of flux on his team were a “Fake News narrative.” Adding new lawyers, he said, would be costly because they would take months “to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more).”
“I am very happy with my existing team,” he added.
Trump Won’t Hire 2 Lawyers Whose Appointments Were Announced Days Ago (NYT)