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Joseph diGenova's hiring is pending completion of a review of
potential conflicts of interest that may arise from
representation of other clients at his law firm, Trump lawyer
Jay Sekulow said.
On Monday, Sekulow said diGenova would sign on this week to help
Trump respond to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation
into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in
the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's lead lawyer in the special counsel investigation, John
Dowd, resigned on Thursday.
DiGenova has not responded to requests for comment.
His law firm, DiGenova Toensing, has represented Mark Corallo, a
former spokesman for Trump's legal team, and Sam Clovis, a
former campaign aide. Sekulow said he had expected the review to
be completed by today.
Corallo represented Trump's outside lawyers until last summer,
when he resigned during another legal team shake-up.
Since then, Corallo has spoken with Mueller about what he viewed
as a false statement dictated by Trump from Air Force One about
a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York City that
included several Russians, according to a person familiar with
the matter. That meeting was attended by Trump's son, Donald Jr.
Clovis, a former Pentagon official, was a campaign supervisor
who wrote "great work" in an email after Trump's foreign policy
advisor George Papadopoulos discussed efforts to broker a
meeting between the campaign and Russian leaders.
Corallo told Reuters on Friday that he had signed a waiver of
potential conflicts on Monday.
Clovis could not be reached for comment, but a person familiar
with the matter said appropriate waivers had been signed.
The addition of diGenova may signal a more aggressive strategy
by Trump's legal team to discredit Mueller, although Sekulow
said this week that the team would continue to cooperate with
the special counsel.
Trump's lawyers have been negotiating the terms of a possible
interview for him with Mueller, sources have said.
DiGenova has appeared on Fox News accusing the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department of trying to frame
Trump with false charges of colluding with Russia during the
campaign.
Trump has had trouble finding outside lawyers to assist him in
the Russia probe.
Major firms such as Williams and Connolly and Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher have turned him down in the last year, citing
conflicts, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Trump representatives have reached out to some of those firms
again, sources said.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Toni Reinhold)
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