Trump's terrible reputation for stiffing his lawyers and being a gigantic jackass has caught up to him again:
“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.
First of all, I have no idea why Trump thought he would even begin to get an attorney of Ted Olson's stature to defend him. The firms he reached out to are very well known. Sullivan and Cromwell. Kirkland and Ellis. Williams and Connolly. Old school. WASP. Big money. The piece notes one additional factor was they didn't want to be associated with him lest other clients feel like the firm would get sucked into the black hole that is Trump's world. There are also worries it could kill top recruitment of young litigators.
Make no mistake, Robert Mueller is no joke. He's done street level yeoman prosecutor's work and won. When someone like him is on your ass, you better be bringing Johnny Cochran level A game to your shit. If I were on Trump's staff, I'd be mortgaged up to the eyeballs in retainers. I certainly wouldn't think about joining this administration.
So, Trump is stuck with his personal divorce guy. Who, hilariously, may also under Mueller's investigation.
But one of the sources said that Kasowitz has been reaching out to Washington legal veterans to solicit ideas and suggestions about how to craft an overall defense strategy, including how and when to publicly release information that might be helpful to the president’s defense, the source said.
His own guy has no fucking clue what to do. All class this bunch. All class.