Trump adds another lawyer to defend him in Russia probe
President Trump has decided to add another attorney to the legal team defending him in the Russia probe — a lawyer who charges that the FBI and Justice Department have illegally conspired to frame the commander-in-chief.
Washington lawyer Joseph E. diGenova has also charged on TV and in speeches that the nation’s top law enforcement authorities covered up for Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server — and then decided to target Trump after Clinton lost the election.
“Over the past year, facts have emerged that suggest there was a plot by high-ranking FBI and Department of Justice officials in the Obama administration, acting under color of law, to exonerate Hillary Clinton of federal crimes and then, if she lost the election, to frame Donald Trump and his campaign for colluding with Russia to steal the presidency,” diGenova charged during a speech in January at an event in Washington, DC, sponsored by Hillsdale College.
“This conduct was not based on mere bias, as has been widely claimed, but rather on deeply felt animus toward Trump and his agenda.”
Digenova, whose hiring was first reported by The New York Times, won’t head up the president’s defense team, which also recently contacted a white collar lawyer who is an expert on impeachment issues.
But he will play the role of pit bull, echoing Trump’s own ramped up attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller, the paper reported, citing sources.
“The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!” the president wrote in one of a series of raging weekend tweets.
While offering little evidence other than polls that show about half of voters think Mueller’s probe is politically motivated, diGenova has pushed the theory that shadowy forces are at work trying to undermine the president.
“There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,” he said told Fox News in January.
“Make no mistake about it: A group of FBI and DOJ people were trying to frame Donald Trump of a falsely created crime.”
The addition followed a weekend statement from one of Trump’s lawyers, John Dowd, that Mueller’s investigation should be shut down.
Dowd at first said he was speaking for the president — who slammed Mueller by name on Twitter for the first time over the weekend after his administration fired deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe — but later changed his tune and said he was speaking for himself.
Another lawyer, Ty Cobb, had repeatedly told his boss that Mueller’s probe would end by Thanksgiving, and then Christmas when the former didn’t happen.
But with the special counsel’s team seeking documents from the Trump Organization related to Russia, experts said the investigation will continue for months or longer.
And Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is defending the president in a high-stakes legal battle with porn vixen Stormy Daniels over the affair she alleges she had with Trump in 2006.
Charles Harder — who had successfully represented first lady Melania Trump in her lawsuit against the Daily Mail and Hulk Hogan in the his legal battle against Gawker – had signed onto a lawsuit the president filed against Daniels to keep her from spilling the beans on their hookup.
The president is also reportedly in talks with Emmet Flood — who represented President Clinton during his impeachment proceedings.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.