One of the nation’s top conservative litigators on Tuesday turned down an offer from the White House to join President Trump’s legal team as the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion heats up.
The White House had contacted Theodore B. Olson, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush and who has far more experience on big cases than the president’s current lawyers, The Washington Post reported, calling Olson a “legal superstar.”
But Olson, 77, will not be repping the president, according to Ted Boutrous, a partner at Olson’s firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
“I can confirm that @gibsondunn and Theodore B. Olson will not be representing @realDonaldTrump,” Boutrous tweeted.
Trump wanted to beef up his legal team as he prepares for possible questioning by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.
Olson reportedly made his decision after reviewing the offer, and was concerned about possible conflicts of interest with his current clients.
Olson — who had previously declined an invite to work for Trump — said in an email to the paper Tuesday, “I’m not going to be commenting on this subject.”
On Monday, Trump hired Joe diGenova, a former federal prosecutor and frequent TV talker who apparently shares the president’s belief that the entire Mueller probe is a conspiracy cooked up by top officials at Justice and the FBI to get Trump.
The hire and outreach to Olson came as the president appeared to be increasingly enraged at the investigation, which he again this week called “a witch hunt.”
Another of his lawyers, John Dowd, said Saturday that Mueller’s investigation should be shut down.
Dowd at first said he was speaking for the president but later changed his story to say he was only speaking for himself.
And Trump himself for the first time went after Mueller by name on Twitter.
“Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!” the commander-in-chief tweeted about the special counsel, a Republican who was put in charge of the probe by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was appointed by Trump.
