President Donald Trump seems to be feeling burned by reports that he's struggling to find lawyers to represent him in the Russia investigation, calling it a "Fake News narrative" on Twitter Sunday morning.
Plenty of lawyers would be happy for the "fame and fortune" of representing him, he wrote.
Trump's legal team has been in turmoil in recent days. He hired Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney and frequent pro-Trump pundit on Fox News, and parted ways with John Dowd, who resigned Thursday. Dowd had been leading negotiations with the special counsel's office over a potential interview with Trump.
On Saturday, it was revealed that diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, would not handle the investigation for the president. The two run their own law firm, and they've represented other people involved with the case.
"The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president's special-counsel legal team," said Jay Sekulow, one of the president's other lawyers. "However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters."
The president's advisers have asked other lawyers about joining the team, but so far no one has signed on. Theodore Olson, who was U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush, declined last week.
In other Twitter posts Sunday, Trump also seemed defensive in the face of conservative criticism about signing a government-spending bill that included just $1.6 billion of the $25 billion he wanted to build a wall on the border with Mexico. He said the money is a "down payment" and lauded the big increase for military spending (though he got the figure wrong).
