Former President Donald Trump rebuked The Washington Post for reporting he was "rushing to hire seasoned lawyers."
The Post on Wednesday night reported that Trump and close aides were struggling to comprise a legal team following the FBI's raid at Mar-a-Lago last week.
"The WAPO story that 'Trump is scrambling to add seasoned lawyers' to the Mar-a-Lago Raid case is, as usual, FAKE NEWS," Trump posted early Thursday morning on Truth Social. "I already have excellent and experienced lawyers – am very happy with them. This is highly political prosecutorial misconduct, I have not been charged with anything and, most importantly, I did nothing wrong. Thank you!"
The Justice Department on Friday said FBI agents who searched Trump's Florida home last week removed 11 sets of classified documents including some marked as top secret. The department added that prosecutors had probable cause to believe the former president may have violated the Espionage Act.
Trump and his allies say the documents had been declassified.
The Post reported that attorneys contacted by Trump and his representatives had refused to defend the former president.
"Everyone is saying no," a prominent Republican lawyer told the Post.
The newspaper, citing two sources, added that longtime confidants and advisers of Trump are worried about the president's current group of lawyers, noting that most of them have little to no experience in cases of this type.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich on Tuesday night defended the former president's legal team, pointing to former federal prosecutors Evan Corcoran and James Trusty.
"The President's lead counsel in relation to the raid of his home, Jim Trusty and Evan Corcoran, have decades of prosecutorial experience and have litigated some of the most complex cases in American history," Budowich said, the Post reported.
"President Trump is represented by some of the strongest attorneys in the country, and any suggestion otherwise is only driven by envy."
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