It’s official: Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, the husband-wife team of Fox News pundits known for pushing conspiracy theories, will not join Donald Trump’s legal team.
“President Trump has decided not to hire two lawyers who were announced last week as new additions to his legal team, leaving him with a shrinking stable of lawyers as the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, enters an intense phase,” The New York Times reported early Sunday.
“The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team,” Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow released in a statement.
“However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters,” Sekulow continued. “The president looks forward to working with them.”
“The president met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, who are married, in recent days to discuss the possibility that they would join his legal team in the Mueller case,” The Times continued. “According to two people told of details about the meeting, the president did not believe he had personal chemistry with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing.”
The news follows a rocky week for Trump’s legal team, which included the departure of John Dowd, Trump’s personal attorney who was leading the defense in the Russia probe.
Very early Sunday, the president launched a tweetstorm praising his legal team and the “many lawyers” who want to represent him in the probe for “fame and fortune.” As the Times’ Maggie Haberman noted:
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license