Some go-to attorneys have been spooked by Trump’s reputation for sometimes not paying as a client, according to several people familiar with conservative legal circles. Others watched closely as lawyers fled Trump’s prior teams, frustrated by him as a client or facing their own ethical predicaments. Others still want themselves and their firms to stay far away from Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen.

“It’s not a 10-foot pole” for law firms distancing themselves from Trump, “it’s a 1,000-foot pole,” said John Yoo, a University of California at Berkeley law professor who held a senior Justice Department position in the George W. Bush administration.

More than a half-dozen prominent attorneys who took notable roles in defending Trump or his advisers in the past are not assisting him this round. Those include Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb, according to sources familiar with Trump’s legal effort.

And at least four well-known lawyers were repeatedly approached by Trump’s team for help in recent weeks — and said no, a source familiar with the discussions tells CNN.