Trump's personal attorneys remain largely on the sidelines as he contends with impeachment

Trump enters a perilous phase of the impeachment inquiry with very limited help from his personal lawyers, who remain largely on the sidelines and in the dark about evidence at the heart of the probe gathered by the White House, according to two people familiar with the situation.

As the House begins discussing specific articles of impeachment, the president is relying almost exclusively on White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his in-house team of attorneys, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

In the face of allegations that Trump abused his office for political gain, the White House lawyers are not sharing with his personal attorneys some internal government records central to the inquiry about the pressure the administration put on Ukraine, citing the need to protect executive privilege.

The unusual decision to have the White House counsel captain the president’s defense — at least for now — departs from how previous presidents have contended with impeachment proceedings and has worried some Trump allies, who believe a multipronged defense would be stronger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-personal-attorneys-remain-largely-on-the-sidelines-as-the-president-contends-with-impeachment-inquiry/2019/12/03/1076807c-150d-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html?wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1