Donald Trump’s attorney have been flying out of his revolving personnel door. That is a major issue for the president. Yet, his new, more aggressive attorneys face an even larger problem thanks to the shady characters he’s appointed to top positions in the White House.
Trump decided to retire his existing legal team, because he felt they were too agreeable with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The special counsel has been investigating the Russian attack on our 2016 presidential election and a possible Trump campaign conspiracy.
Instead, 45 hired a more aggressive team, starting with former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. The attorney was supposed to handle public relations. Instead, he fell headlong into a pool of dopiness on the Fox network. The more he talked, the worse it was for Trump’s legal cases.
Then, Trump brought a married couple, white-collar defense lawyers Martin and Jane Raskin, onto his legal team. At this time, whether they have started the security clearance process is still up in the air.
Then, there is the newest attorney who defended President Bill Clinton in his impeachment hearing. Emmet Flood came from a major Washington, D.C. law firm. Yet, he and Giuliani have a real dilemma.
Trump’s legal team does not have security clearance. That means that they cannot be involved in the more sensitive issues the sitting president must discuss in any interview with Mueller.
The commander-in-chief’s previous lead attorney, John Dowd, was the only one on the legal team with a security clearance. Unfortunately for the president, Dowd left because Trump refused to agree with his legal strategy.
Then, Jay Sekulow replaced Dowd as lead. His security clearance is still in the works. Of course, there is Trump’s attorney, Ty Cobb. He had a security clearance and had been dealing with Mueller.
However, the White House just announced he would be leaving at the end of May. Even so, he was not the one involved in the issue of whether Mueller can subpoena Trump.
Recently, the media discovered that the negotiations with Trump’s legal team over how Mueller would interview the president had broken down. At that point, the special counsel said that he would subpoena the president if he refused to come.
Typically, prosecutors tell defense attorneys the general areas they want to discuss during the voluntary interview. At the same time, defense attorneys work to limit the boundaries of the questions. After Giuliani arrived, 49 of those questions somehow ended up in The New York Times.
It got worse. when adult entertainment star and producer, Stormy Daniels, sued Trump in the Southern District of New York to release her from an unsigned nondisclosure agreement and address Trump’s defamation of character. This case is unrelated to the Russian investigation, but has been given significant media coverage.
BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani says President Trump reimbursed his personal attorney Michael Cohen the $130k paid to Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about their alleged affair. pic.twitter.com/vmDYz6nlye
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 3, 2018
Former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Harry Sandick, told Bloomberg:
‘You always try to negotiate down to make it easier for your client. Whether it’s a good idea for President Trump depends entirely on whether he can give truthful answers to the questions listed without incriminating himself.’
For Trump’s sake, Giuliani should quit talking. The more he said on Fox, the worse the cases became for 45. Apparently, the big man in the White House was unhappy with the former mayor’s first appearance, so he sent Giuliani back out. It only got worse.
Featured Image via Getty Images/Spencer Platt.
