But beyond that, Ms. Toensing is representing Mark Corallo, who was the spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team in 2017 before they parted ways.
Mr. Corallo has told investigators that he was concerned that a close aide to Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, may have been planning to obstruct justice during the drafting of a statement about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign.
Ms. Hicks’s lawyer has strongly denied that suggestion, and White House aides said Mr. Corallo’s assertion had come up in discussions with the president as he weighed whether to go ahead with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing.
Mr. diGenova had been expected to serve as an outspoken voice for the president as Mr. Trump has increased his attacks on Mr. Mueller. Mr. diGenova has endorsed the notion that a secretive group of F.B.I. agents concocted the Russia investigation as a way to keep Mr. Trump from becoming president, a theory with little supporting evidence.
“There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,” he had told Fox News in January.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump took to Twitter from his Florida resort to insist that he faced no problems finding lawyers to represent him in the Russia investigation.
“Fame & fortune will never be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,” Mr. Trump said in a tweet.
The president insisted that “many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case,” and that reports of flux on his team were a “Fake News narrative.” Adding new lawyers, he said, would be costly because they would take months “to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more).”
“I am very happy with my existing team,” he added.
The news about the canceled legal appointments came as White House officials were girding themselves for an interview on Sunday evening on the CBS program “60 Minutes” with the porn star known as Stormy Daniels.
Ms. Daniels claims to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Trump, and she signed a nondisclosure agreement with one of his lawyers, Michael D. Cohen, during the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, will be far apart by the time the interview airs. The White House announced that the first lady would stay behind in Florida when the president returned to Washington on Sunday afternoon. A spokeswoman, Lindsay Walters, said it was “their tradition for spring break.”
On Sunday, one of Mr. Trump’s closest friends, Christopher Ruddy, said the president was “perplexed” by reports of turmoil in his administration. Speaking on the ABC program “This Week,” Mr. Ruddy, who is the chief executive of Newsmax Media, said he expected the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to stay in his job, despite the president’s chafing at what he sees as the restrictions Mr. Kelly has placed on him.
But Mr. Ruddy, citing sources other than the president, said he expected the secretary of veterans affairs, David Shulkin, to leave the cabinet soon. Dr. Shulkin’s departure has been widely expected. And Mr. Ruddy played down reports that Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, was in trouble, despite Mr. Trump’s private criticism of Mr. Carson to advisers after revelations of excessive spending on an office dining room set.
Ashleigh F. Barry, a spokeswoman for Dr. Shulkin, said on Sunday that there were no personnel changes at the department to announce.
“President Trump has made clear that he expects the department’s sole focus to be on providing quality care to America’s veterans, who have sacrificed to keep this country free and safe,” she said.
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