Top law firms refused to represent Trump in the Russia probe because of concerns he wouldn't 'pay' or 'listen'

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

published 6 June 2017

President Trump had a tough time getting a lawyer to agree to represent him in the ongoing investigation into his team's potential ties to Russia's election meddling. Yahoo News reported Tuesday that "top lawyers with at least four major law firms" rejected Trump's request for representation, before Trump eventually got New York civil litigator Marc E. Kasowitz to sign on as his chief lawyer.

Lawyers' reasons for rejecting Trump varied, ranging from concerns about conflicts with existing clients, to a lack of time, to whether being associated with Trump could be detrimental to a firm's reputation and recruitment efforts. However, two reasons cropped up again and again, Yahoo News reported:

But a consistent theme, the sources said, was the concern about whether the president would accept the advice of his lawyers and refrain from public statements and tweets that have consistently undercut his position."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. [Yahoo News]