Members of the White House staff have been taking notice of U-turns and clumsy explanations being offered by by President Trump’s legal team and trying to keep their distance.
Even as he derides the ‘Russia hoax’ of the Mueller probe, President Trump brought on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliana, saw White House lawyer Ty Cobb and personal lawyer John Dowd leave his legal team, while keeping First Amendment lawyer Jay Sekulow and adding a pair of Florida attorneys.
Axios reported that several White House aides said the current iteration of Trump’s team has been ‘incompetent and sloppy — and the aides have no idea what Rudy Giuliani is going to say next.”
The report stated that a vast majority of the staff serving Trump, including senior staff, are watching the bizarre show like the rest of the public.”
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared on CNN Monday night, where he said of another Trump lawyer’s claim Trump didn’t dictate a statement about a Russia meeting: ‘It was a mistake, I swear to God’
In just the latest legal headache, the newest Trump lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on Monday night tried to defend inaccurate statements by another lawyer, Jay Sekulow, by calling it a ‘mistake.’
Sekulow had claimed Trump did not dictate a statement from Air Force One issued by Donald Trump Jr. about an infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians. A 20-page filing by his legal team stated that Trump did, in fact, dictate it.
‘You think maybe somebody could have made a mistake?” Giuliani tried to explain to CNN host Chris Cuomo, who responded saying that’s a ‘lot of mistakes.’
Former Trump lawyer John Dowd
“Why is it always– you think Jay Sekulow lied?’ as Cuomo looked on in shock.
‘Maybe he just got it wrong like I got a few things wrong at the beginning of the investigation. This is a complex investigation. First week or so, I got a few things wrong, and then it was clarified in a letter, and that’s the final position.’
Giuliani continued: ‘It was a mistake, I swear to God. It was a mistake, the guy made a mistake and then he corrected it.”
Countered House Intelligence panel ranking member Adam Schiff: ‘It’s only a mistake if you consider deliberate lying to be a mistake.’
None of the lawyers’ lives have been made easier by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who is under criminal investigation.
In an earlier appearance, Giuliani said Trump repaid Cohen for his payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who reached a settlement with Cohen. Daniels claims she had a affair with Trump.
Trump later turned in a new financial disclosure form that listed ‘reimbursement’ to Cohen.
STORMY WEATHER: Ty Cobb, White House special counsel, holds an umbrella while walking near the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, May 17, 2018. He has now left his post
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow is facing pressure for his statements about Trump’s role in a statement about a Russia meeting
The Axios report says staff assume Giuliani and Trump are coordinating, and are doing all they can to be able to say ‘I know nothing.’
At Tuesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said close to that, as she tried to avoid her own past statements that Trump did not dictate the statement his son issued about the meeting that included a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.
‘I think you all know I’m an honest person,’ Sanders said. ‘But I’m not going to engage on matters that deal with the outside counsel.
‘Frankly I think that my credibility is probably higher than the media’s,’ she said.
Trump’s earlier White House lawyer, Ty Cobb, gave repeated assurances of when the Mueller probe would wrap up, starting with last Thanksgiving. Each of them were wrong.
Now Giuliani says Mueller should end the probe by September.