Four Top Law Firms Turned Trump Down On Russia Investigation
Before Trump finally hired Kasowitz he was turned down by some of the biggest, most prestigious law firms in the country.
Four top law firms turned down requests to represent Donald Trump in the Russia investigation, according to a new report.
Lawyers from the prestigious firms declined to represent Trump in the investigation out of concerns that he would not take their advice, Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News has reported.
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 are the among those who turned the White House down.
Yahoo News reports that lawyers familiar with the situation said that possible damage to a firm’s reputation and potential conflicts with clients as part of their reasoning for not representing Trump.
The lawyers reportedly said they were concerned Trump would make public statements against their legal advice that hurt his position in the investigation.
According to the report, the chief issue for the attorneys “was the concern about whether the president would accept the advice of his lawyers and refrain from public statements and tweets that have consistently undercut his position.”
“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” one lawyer close to the White House told Yahoo.
Trump has hired his long-time attorney Marc Kasowitz to represent him in the Russia investigation. But as the Yahoo report notes, Kasowitz has “little experience dealing with complex congressional and Justice Department investigations that are inevitably influenced by media coverage and public opinion.”
The White House began to quietly reach out to law firms after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
