Trump claims many lawyers want to represent him in Russia probe: ‘Don’t believe the Fake News narrative’

President TrumpDonald John TrumpParkland student encourages protesters to ‘keep screaming at your own congressman’ Seven most memorable moments from ‘March for Our Lives’ Trump considering expelling 20 Russian diplomats over chemical attacks: report MORE on Sunday claimed that many lawyers want to represent him in the special counsel’s Russia investigation.

“Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case…don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,” he tweeted.

“Fame fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,” he continued.

“Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country.”

Trump then reiterated that he is pleased with his current legal team.

“I am very happy with my existing team,” he tweeted.

“Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!”

Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case…don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on. Fame fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted. Problem is that a new……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018

….lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country – and I am very happy with my existing team. Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018

The tweets come just days after John Dowd, Trump’s lead personal attorney handling the investigation into Russian election interference and possible collusion between the president’s campaign and Moscow, abruptly resigned.

Dowd’s exit reportedly came as the president seeks to shake up his legal team amid frustrations within the White House over special counsel Robert MuellerRobert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE‘s probe, which has cast a cloud over the administration for more than a year now.

Last week, Trump added Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who has been highly critical of the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), to his outside legal team. With Dowd gone, Trump’s outside legal team handling the Russia matter will be led, at least in the interim, by diGenova and Jay Sekulow.

At least two well-known lawyers — Ted Olsen and Emmett Flood— were also reported to have been approached about taking a role on Trump’s legal team. But a top executive at Olsen’s firm tweeted that neither Olsen nor the firm would be representing the president.

–This report was updated at 8:47 a.m.

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Keep shouting, don’t become anesthetized, pope tells young people

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis, starting Holy Week services leading to Easter, urged young people on Sunday to keep shouting and not allow the older generations to silence their voices or anesthetize their idealism.

Francis spoke a day after hundreds of thousands of young Americans and their supporters answered a call to action from survivors of last month’s Florida high school massacre and rallied across the United States to demand tighter gun laws. He did not mention the demonstrations.

The 81-year-old Roman Catholic leader led a long and solemn Palm Sunday service before tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square, many of them young people there for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Youth.

Carrying a woven palm branch known as a “palmurello,” Francis led a procession in front of the largest church in Christendom to commemorate the day the Bible says Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as a saviour, only to be crucified five days later.

Drawing on biblical parallels, Francis urged the young people in the crowd not to let themselves be manipulated.

“The temptation to silence young people has always existed,” Francis said in the homily of a Mass.

“There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive,” he said.

“Dear young people, you have it in you to shout,” he told young people, urging them to be like the people who welcomed Jesus with palms rather than those who shouted for his crucifixion only days later.

“It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders, some corrupt, keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?”

The young people in the crowd shouted, “Yes!”

While Francis did not mention Saturday’s marches in the United States, he has often condemned weapons manufacturing and mass shootings.

Palm Sunday marked the start of a hectic week of activities for the pope.

On Holy Thursday he is due to preside at two services, including one in which he will wash the feet of 12 inmates in a Rome jail to commemorate Jesus’ gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.

On Good Friday, he is due to lead a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession at Rome’s Colosseum. On Saturday night he leads a Easter vigil service and on Easter Sunday he delivers his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message.

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Mark Heinrich

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