With his legal team in upheaval, President Donald Trump has called on famed Chicago trial attorney Dan Webb to help defend him.
Webb’s response?
Sorry, can’t help you.
A spokeswoman for Winston & Strawn, the Chicago-based law firm co-chaired by Webb, said Webb and Tom Buchanan — a managing partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office — declined Trump’s invitation, citing “business conflicts.”
“President Trump reached out to Dan Webb and Tom Buchanan to provide legal representation,” firm spokeswoman Jill Delaney-Shea said in an emailed statement. “They were unable to take on the representation due to business conflicts. However, they 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.”
Delaney-Shea did not respond when asked when Trump reached out to Webb and Buchanan.
Webb, a former federal prosecutor, specializes in white-collar criminal defense, as does Buchanan.
John Dowd, the president’s lead defense attorney representing him in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, resigned last week. The New York Times reported that Dowd’s decision came as Trump was ignoring Dowd’s legal advice. Dowd denied that was his reason for leaving.
Even though Webb has been recognized as one of the top lawyers in the nation, he still seems like a bit of an odd choice for Trump’s legal team.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Webb, a Republican, broke with the party and supported Hillary Clinton, telling the Chicago Sun-Times that Trump “is not fit to be president.”
At the time Webb said he believed “a huge volume of Republicans” shared his view of Trump.
“But they are sitting on the sidelines, and I urge some of them to get off the sidelines, give Hillary some money and support her because we can’t afford to let him become president,” Webb said.
