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Two Winston & Strawn Lawyers Decline Working for President Trump

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By Teresa Lo

Posted on March 28, 2018

Summary: Winston & Strawn said two of its attorneys would not be joining Trump’s legal team.

Two more attorneys have declined an invitation to work for President Donald Trump. According to CNN, the latest attorneys to say no were from Chicago’s office of Winston & Strawn.

Winston & Strawn told CNN on Tuesday that lawyers, Dan Webb and Tom Buchanan, would not be joining Trump’s defense team against the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller was hired to investigate whether or not Russia helped Trump win the 2016 presidential election, and so far, he has indicted five members of Trump’s inner circle.

The Chicago-based law firm said the two attorneys declined Trump’s offer due to “business conflicts.”

“[Webb and Buchanan] consider the opportunity to represent the President to be the highest honor and they sincerely regret that they cannot do so. They wish the President the best and believe he has excellent representation in Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow,” the statement said.

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Winston & Strawn is the fifth law firm to receive an invitation to join Trump’s legal team. According to CNN, “Other lawyers who declined to join Trump’s team include former US Solicitor General Ted Olson; Emmet Flood, who’s worked for multiple presidents; Robert Bennett, Bill Clinton’s attorney in the Paula Jones litigation; and Bob Giuffra, of Sullivan & Cromwell.”

Trump’s legal team is currently experiencing change now that Trump’s lead attorney John Dowd resigned last week. Behind the scenes, Trump and Dowd had disagreed on the direction of how to handle the Mueller probe, and Dowd was allegedly upset that Trump had hired attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing.

On Sunday, one of Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, said that diGenova and Toensing would no longer be able to represent the president because of conflicts.

According to CNN, it is almost unheard of for so many lawyers to decline taking on a president as a client and that these lawyers have been hesitant to work for Trump for a variety of reasons.

“Well-known Washington lawyers cited several reasons for declining the President in recent weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with their decisions. Among them, Trump appears to be a difficult client and has rebuked some of his lawyers’ advice. He’s perceived as so politically unpopular he may damage reputations rather than boost them. Lawyers at large firms fear backlash from their corporate clients if they were to represent the President. And many want to steer clear of conflicts of interest that could complicate their other obligations,” CNN said.

Trump said on Sunday that reports that he could not find representation were untrue.

“Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case … don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,” the President wrote in a pair of tweets. “Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,” Trump tweeted.