DiGenova Still Chats With Trump Despite Not Joining His Outside Legal Team

NA/PLAME  LOCATION:  WASHINGTON, DC  DATE: 03/16/07 NEG:  maram 189122  CAPTION:  Former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill Friday, March 16, 2007 — Hearing witness Victoria Toensing, left, and Joe diGenova listen to Plame's testimony.
Lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova listen to former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on March 16, 2007. (Photo: Getty Images)
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Former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, have not lost the President’s ear, despite conflicts of interest that blocked the couple from joining President Donald Trump’s legal defense against the Russia probe.

“Victoria and I are playing the roles of lawyers on television and real life,” diGenova told WBAL News Radio on Monday. “We’ve spoke with the President several times since our respective statements last week and we continue to chat with his lawyers and with him.”

The White House announced earlier this month that Toensing and diGenova would join Trump’s legal team, but days later the couple countered the White House, saying they couldn’t join the President’s defense because of conflicts of interest regarding previous clients.

DiGenova has been vocally opposed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and has propagated theories of a rampant anti-Trump bias within the FBI.

On Monday, he called deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein a “disgrace” for the “unauthorized act” of appointing Mueller.

“I have no respect for the man,” he told WBAL. “He has taken away, from a dully elected President of the United States, over a year of his presidency, by his foolish and cowardly act— an unauthorized act of appointing a special counsel. … I think it is a disgrace.”

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