No problems at all with his legal team, with whom he is "very happy"

As President Trump heads into one of the most critical phases of the special counsel’s investigation, his personal legal team has shrunk to essentially just one member [Jay Sekulow, a conservative commentator who made his name on religious freedom cases], and he is struggling to find any top lawyers willing to represent him.

[...]

In some cases, lawyers’ firms have blocked any talks, fearing a backlash that would hurt business.

The president lost two lawyers in just the past four days, including one who had been on board for less than a week.

Joseph diGenova, a longtime Washington lawyer who has pushed theories on Fox News that the F.B.I. made up evidence against Mr. Trump, left the team on Sunday. He had been hired last Monday, three days before the head of the president’s personal legal team, John Dowd, quit after determining that the president was not listening to his advice.

[...]

Roger Cossack, a seasoned legal analyst, said the key to successfully defending a high-profile client under immense scrutiny was to have a cohesive legal team with a consistent strategy.

“In these types of cases, you need highly competent lawyers and a client who will listen and follow their advice,” Mr. Cossack said. “If you don’t have both, you have what we’re seeing here: chaos and disaster.”

[...]

“He is looking for the guy who can say, ‘I know how to handle Mueller, I know you think he is bad, and we’ll take care of it.’ Problem is you can’t find that lawyer because no one will be able to do that.”

[...]

[Trump attorney Marc] Kasowitz pushed for an adversarial approach to the special counsel, which the president was poised to follow. But Mr. Kasowitz clashed with Mr. Kushner, and he was soon pushed aside after a series of missteps and embarrassing incidents.

[...]

When Mr. Kasowitz took the lead after Mr. Mueller was appointed in May, he wanted to follow a model used by Mr. Clinton, with a separate team of lawyers and communications professionals handling issues related to the inquiry, so that the White House staff could keep its distance.

But Mr. Trump, who trusts few people and considers himself his best lawyer, spokesman and strategist, never wanted that type of system. As a result, his legal and public relations strategies have been out of sync, with the president at times publicly contradicting his lawyers, and the White House often finding itself flat-footed in the face of new disclosures about the Russia investigation.

[...]

This month, the president met with the veteran lawyer Emmet Flood about the possibility of joining the legal team. But Mr. Trump was put off by the fact that Mr. Flood, a Republican, had represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment process, and Mr. Flood has made clear that he will not represent the president if Marc E. Kasowitz, his brash longtime personal lawyer, has any role in the effort.

Mr. Trump also tried to recruit Theodore B. Olson, a well-known Republican lawyer, but Mr. Olson has said he would not be representing the president.

[...]

One reason Mr. Dowd quit was that, against his advice, Mr. Trump was insistent that he wanted to answer questions under oath from Mr. Mueller, believing that it would help clear him.

Mr. Dowd had concluded that there was no upside and that the president, who often does not tell the truth, could increase his legal exposure if his answers were not accurate.

  NYT

"If".

Mr. Trump, hoping to bolster his team, met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing in recent days but, according to two people told of details about the meeting, did not believe he had personal chemistry with them.

There were also significant conflict-of-interest issues, but Mr. Trump could have waived them if he wanted. 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 that 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.

How could he have waived that conflict? That's a big conflict. To argue on behalf of Corallo - against Hope Hicks, the lawyers would have to implicate Trump in Hicks' actions.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Holy shit, can you take any more?

If not, don't read this post.  It concerns the flight on which Trump Sr. crafted a letter for Trump Jr. to lie about Russian adoptions in an attempt to cover for his infamous meeting to get dirt on Hillary.

The latest witness to be called for an interview about the episode was Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team before resigning in July. Mr. Corallo received an interview request last week from the special counsel and has agreed to the interview, according to three people with knowledge of the request.

[...]

The president supervised the writing of the statement, according to three people familiar with the episode, with input from other White House aides. A fierce debate erupted over how much information the news release should include. Mr. Trump was insistent about including language that the meeting was about Russian adoptions, according to two people with knowledge of the discussion. The president supervised the writing of the statement, according to three people familiar with the episode, with input from other White House aides. A fierce debate erupted over how much information the news release should include. Mr. Trump was insistent about including language that the meeting was about Russian adoptions, according to two people with knowledge of the discussion.

[...]

Nearly four hours later, the statement that had been cobbled together aboard Air Force One was sent to The Times. The statement was in Donald Trump Jr.’s name and was issued by Mr. Garten.

[...]

The Times published its story about the Trump Tower meeting, with the statement, at 5 p.m. Not long after, the news site Circa published a different version, saying that the June 2016 meeting had been set up “to discuss a Russian policy.” Mr. Corallo, the spokesman for the legal team, said in that story that the Russians had “misrepresented who they were and who they worked for.” He, along with the rest of the president’s legal team, was not consulted about Donald Trump Jr.’s statement before it was released.

[...]

Accusations began flying that the botched response made an already bad situation worse. Ms. Hicks called Mr. Corallo from Air Force One, according to three people who relayed his version of events to The Times. She accused him of trafficking in conspiracy theories and drawing more attention to the story.

The conference call with the president, Mr. Corallo and Ms. Hicks took place the next morning, and what transpired on the call is a matter of dispute.

In Mr. Corallo’s account — which he provided contemporaneously to three colleagues who later gave it to The Times — he told both Mr. Trump and Ms. Hicks that the statement drafted aboard Air Force One would backfire because documents would eventually surface showing that the meeting had been set up for the Trump campaign to get political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians.

[...]

Mr. Corallo told colleagues that he immediately notified the legal team of the conversation and jotted down notes to memorialize it. He also shared his concerns with Stephen K. Bannon, then the president’s chief strategist.

Mr. Corallo left the job shortly after the phone call.

[...]

Contacted on Wednesday, Mr. Corallo said he did not dispute any of the account shared by his colleagues but declined to elaborate further.

  NYT

One of the few smart ones, he packed his bags.

Has Hicks had her turn with the Mueller team yet? If not, it's coming up real soon.

In a statement on Wednesday, a lawyer for Ms. Hicks strongly denied Mr. Corallo’s allegations.

“As most reporters know, it’s not my practice to comment in response to questions from the media. But this warrants a response,” said the lawyer, Robert P. Trout. “She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”

Is that what she's going to tell Mueller?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

House Intel Committee won't pursue their obligation

As we've noted several times already, the House Intel Committee's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election is worthless.  Worse, a waste of time and money.

The New York Times’s blockbuster new report last night adds extensive new detail to our understanding of just how far President Trump and the White House went to try to derail the probe into Russian sabotage of our election and possible Trump campaign conspiracy with those efforts.

The new information also strengthens the obstruction-of-justice case against Trump and the White House, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told me in an interview this morning.

[...]

All of this bolsters the case for the House Intelligence Committee to bring back Sessions and Trump Jr. for questioning. Democrats want to bring back Trump Jr. to press for more information about a call he had with his father just after news of the Trump Tower meeting broke, which could shed light on what happened at that meeting.

[...]

Schiff noted that the Times’s reporting bolsters the case for bringing back Sessions as well, which Democrats have asked for.

[...]

And Schiff told me committee Democrats have asked Republicans to bring in Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for Trump’s legal team. Michael Wolff’s new book reports that Corallo quit after thinking the statement lying about the Trump Tower meeting constituted obstruction of justice. “This makes his testimony before our committee very important,” Schiff said.

Schiff confirmed to me that all these requests have “gone nowhere” with Rep. Devin Nunes, the committee chair, and other Republicans. “They simply sit on the requests,” Schiff said.

[...]

Meanwhile, Nunes is going in another direction: He’s trying to force the Justice Department to cough up documents that will allegedly show that the genesis of the FBI probe itself is dubious, and Politico reports that Paul Ryan is siding with Nunes.

  WaPo

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Who Knows Where We're Going?

Somebody knows, but I don't think it's the pundits. And I know it isn't me. The fact that we got where we are is flabbergasting enough.

pourmecoffee is on a roll this morning.

I don't think it's going to go like that. I could be wrong. He might start handing out pardons. (And he won't be the first one to pardon relatives and buddies.) I don't think he's going to fire Mueller.

Currently, the discussions of pardoning authority by Trump’s legal team are purely theoretical, according to two people familiar with the ongoing conversations. But if Trump pardoned himself in the face of the ongoing Mueller investigation, it would set off a legal and political firestorm, first around the question of whether a president can use the constitutional pardon power in that way.

“This is a fiercely debated but unresolved legal question,” said Brian C. Kalt, a constitutional law expert at Michigan State University who has written extensively on the question.

  WaPo

[P]ardon authority extends to federal criminal prosecution but not to state level or impeachment inquiries.

[...]

Some of President Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation.
[...]

Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to [a person familiar with the efforts]. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.

[...]

are actively compiling a list of Mueller’s alleged potential conflicts of interest.

[...]

Responding to this story on Friday after it was published late Thursday, one of Trump’s attorneys, John Dowd, said it was “not true” and “nonsense.”

That may be, but John Dowd is also the lawyer who said Mueller didn't have authority to investigate Trump's business dealings, so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in what Dowd has to say.

“The President’s lawyers are cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller on behalf of the President,” he said.

As much as they have to.

Trump has been fuming about the probe in recent weeks as he has been informed about the legal questions that he and his family could face. His primary frustration centers on why allegations that his campaign coordinated with Russia should spread into scrutinizing many years of Trump dealmaking.

Wasn't expecting that, I guess. He better get out the pardon forms.

He has told aides he was especially disturbed after learning Mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns.

“If any state does not want to share this information, one has to wonder what they’re worried about?” the president asked rhetorically. “What are they worried about? There’s something, there always is.”

Further adding to the challenges facing Trump’s outside lawyers, the team’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, resigned on Thursday. Corallo confirmed Friday that he has resigned but declined to comment further.

Trouble, right here in River City. (I've quoted the attorney troubles from this article in another post.)

The president’s legal representatives have also identified what they allege are several conflicts of interest facing Mueller, such as donations to Democrats by some of his prosecutors.

Another potential conflict claim is an allegation that Mueller and Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia had a dispute over membership fees when Mueller resigned as a member in 2011, two White House advisers said. A spokesman for Mueller said there was no dispute when Mueller, who was FBI director at the time, left the club.

Another Republican in touch with the administration described the public steps as part of a broader effort aimed at “laying the groundwork to fire” Mueller.

“Who attacks their entire Justice Department?” this person said. “It’s insane.”

  WAPo

I think that pretty much says it all.

Trump Team in Trouble

Further adding to the challenges facing Trump’s outside lawyers, the team’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, resigned on Thursday. Corallo confirmed Friday that he has resigned but declined to comment further.

Corallo’s departure is part of a larger restructuring of Trump’s team undertaken in recent days. Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s New York-based personal attorney who had been leading the effort, will take a reduced role, people familiar with the team said.

[...]

Mark Corallo is no longer working as a spokesman for the legal team. A former Justice Department spokesman, Mr. Corallo was one of several people cautioning against publicly criticizing Mr. Mueller.

  WaPo

He must have known he was going to have to pay for that nasty outburst of his where he threatened a man who asked an innocent question in an email.

Meanwhile, veteran Washington lawyer John Dowd, hired last month, will take the lead in responding to the Special Counsel and Congressional inquiries.

Dowd has said be believes Mueller has no right to investigate Trump's personal business - he's wrong, which I'm sure he'll be informed when he talks to Mueller and the Congressional Committees - and is now trying to scuttle reports that Trump and his lawyers are discussing firing Mueller.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer who has been a familiar face in conservative media in recent years, will serve as the group’s public face, appearing frequently on television.

Sekulow said in an interview Thursday that the president and his legal team are intent on making sure Mueller stays within the boundaries of his assignment as special counsel. He said they will complain directly to Mueller if necessary.

That's for public consumption. Sekulow has no doubt read the official document assigning Mueller to the case.

On Monday, lawyer Ty Cobb, newly brought into the White House to handle responses to the Russian probe, convened a meeting with the president and his team of lawyers, according to two people briefed on the meeting. Cobb, who is not yet on the White House payroll, was described as attempting to instill some discipline in how the White House handles queries about the case. But Trump surprised many of his aides by speaking at length about the probe to the New York Times two days later. Cobb, who officially joins the White House team at the end of the month, declined to comment for this article.

Probably because he's not at all sure he wants to stay long enough to officially join the team.

The president has long called the FBI investigation into his campaign’s possible coordination with the Russians a “witch hunt.” But now, Trump is coming face-to-face with a powerful investigative team that is able to study evidence of any crime it encounters in the probe — including tax fraud, lying to federal agents and interference in the investigation.

“This is Ken Starr times 1,000,” said one lawyer involved in the case, referring to the independent counsel who oversaw an investigation that eventually led to House impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton. “Of course, it’s going to go into his finances.”

And we're all waiting gleefully, oblivious to what might be coming up behind us.