WaPo: Trump Starts His Days On Russia Probe With Outside Legal Team

President Donald Trump announces the approval of a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline, clearing the way for the $8 billion project, Friday, March 24, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - In a Friday, March 24, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump announces the approval of a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. President Trump on Sunda... FILE - In a Friday, March 24, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump announces the approval of a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. President Trump on Sunday, March 26, attacked conservative lawmakers for the failure of the Republican bill to replace Barack Obama's health care law as his aides pledged to court moderate Democrats on upcoming initiatives from health care to tax cuts. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump has started talking to his outside legal team in the morning before he begins work in the Oval Office to vent and discuss strategy regarding the Russia probes, the Washington Post reported Friday morning, citing three unnamed senior White House officials.

Trump calls his outside counsel “many mornings” around 6:30 a.m, according to the Washington Post. These calls occur before Trump typically goes on his early-morning Twitter tirades, during which he often sounds off on news stories about the Russia investigations.

Per the Post:

The calls — detailed by three senior White House officials — are part strategy consultation and part presidential venting session, during which Trump’s lawyers and public-relations gurus take turns reviewing the latest headlines with him. They also devise their plan for battling his avowed enemies: the special counsel leading the Russia investigation; the “fake news” media chronicling it; and, in some instances, the president’s own Justice Department overseeing the probe.

Trump’s advisers have encouraged him to make these morning calls in the hopes that he will then be able to focus on other issues afterward, but it’s not clear this has worked.

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