New Lawyers: We Can't Help Trump With Russia Probe

Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing have 'conflicts'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 25, 2018 11:30 AM CDT
New Lawyers: We Can't Help Trump With Russia Probe
President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, March 23, 2018, as he heads to Marine One for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump will not be adding two new lawyers to the legal team defending him in the special counsel's Russia investigation, one of the president's attorneys said Sunday. Trump attorney Jay Sekulow says in a statement that Washington lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing have conflicts that won't allow them to represent the president regarding special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, the AP reports. The announcement came just hours after Trump used Twitter to push back against reports that he's having difficulty adding to his legal team, saying he was "very happy" with his current attorneys.

Neither the president nor Sekulow specified the conflict regarding diGenova and Toensing, who are married to each other and law partners, but their firm has represented other clients in the special counsel's investigation, including former Trump campaign adviser Sam Clovis. Sekulow says Trump was "disappointed" that diGenova and Toensing won't be defending him in the special counsel investigation, but "those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the President in other legal matters." On Sunday, diGenova and Toensing released a joint statement thanking the president but declining to give details on how they might represent him. DiGenova had been expected to usher in a new strategy for the president after Trump's lead attorney, John Dowd, resigned last week.

(More President Trump stories.)

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