After rejecting Trumps offer, Ted Olson admonishes him
Former George W. Bush administration solicitor general Ted Olson last week turned down President Trump's entreaties to join his legal team for the Russia investigation. And now Olson is explaining what seems to be his reasoning.
It probably won't surprise you.
“I think everybody would agree: This is turmoil, it's chaos, it's confusion, it's not good for anything,” Olson said Monday on MSNBC's “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” “We always believe that there should be an orderly process, and, of course, government is not clean or orderly ever. But this seems to be beyond normal.”
Olson was speaking broadly about Trump's personnel changes, but it's not difficult to apply his comments to Trump's legal situation. Last week, after the president insisted that he was happy with his legal team, the White House announced the hiring of former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova, tried unsuccessfully to hire Olson, parted ways with lead Trump personal attorney John Dowd, and then lost diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, over conflicts with their other clients.
None of it was the stuff of a well-oiled machine. How the White House announced diGenova's hiring without checking on his conflicts is mind-boggling in and of itself. Dowd's departure came after he had suggested the week before that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation should be shut down. Olson's attempted hire would have been a potential game-changer, given his cachet in Washington legal circles, but it just looks like an embarrassing Hail Mary in retrospect — especially given that Olson had turned Trump down once before.
In retrospect, it's easy to see why Olson has turned Trump down twice. In addition to his commentary Monday, Olson authored a Fox News op-ed a week ago — right around the time he was being recruited — accusing the Trump administration of “acquiescing in the evisceration of one of America’s most important counter-terrorism laws” — the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1992:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/its-chaos-its-not-good-for-anything-after-rejecting-trumps-offer-ted-olson-admonishes-him/ar-BBKJaBF?li=BBnb7Kz
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