Profile view of Donald J Trump, presidential candidate, at the Boca Raton, FL Rally on March 13th, 2016.
Photo Credit: Windover Way Photography/Shutterstock
Four top law firms turned down White House requests to represent President Donald Trump in the ongoing Russia probe — and many cited his infamous unwillingness to heed legal advice as a key reason.
Yahoo News’ Mike Isikoff reports that the White House recently reached out to some of America’s top lawyers to see if they would work for Trump on the Russia investigation, including Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly; Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Paul Clement and Mark Filip of Kirkland & Ellis; and Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell.
However, all of these lawyers turned the White House down, forcing the administration to rely on longtime Trump attorney Marc E. Kasowitz instead.
“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one of Isikoff’s sources, who is described as a “lawyer close to the White House.”
Another attorney tells Isikoff that Trump’s toxic political image at the moment made firms reluctant to be associated with him, as they feared association with Trump would hurt their efforts to recruit top talent to their firms.
“Do I want to be associated with this president and his policies?” the attorney said in explaining the firms’ concerns about working for Trump.