Mike Pence hires his own lawyer to navigate Trump's Russia investigation

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller has been on the job for almost a month and already Vice President Mike Pence is getting his own lawyer.

According to the Washington Post, Pence wants to be prepared for impending congressional committee inquiries as well as Mueller. The VP's office released a statement saying that Pence hired Richmond-based attorney Richard Cullen, who once served as a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has spent several months doing investigative reporting into the Russia scandal but she has maintained that Pence's denials of involvement or knowledge aren't entirely plausible.

“[H]earing that story — today is the first [he’s] hearing of it,” Pence told Fox News's Bret Baier about retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

“That cannot be true,” Maddow remarked, launching into a timeline of warnings that Pence received.

“Either they were criminally negligent — or they weren’t and they knew,” Maddow said in March.

The decision comes mere weeks after Trump announced that he has hired his own attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz.

“There is a consciousness of guilt here,” MSNBC's Joy Reid said of Trump asking Pence and his attorney general Jeff Sessions to leave the room. “It’s not that he doesn’t understand. Not only does he ask Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice to leave, he asks him twice.”

Apparently, the hiring of his own attorney took several weeks in which Pence personally interviewed multiple candidates. Trump and Pence are not the only people in the White House seeking legal counsel. Even lower level staffers are being forced to pay $1500 an hour for their own attorneys.

“I can confirm that the Vice President has retained Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods to assist him in responding to inquiries by the special counsel,” Pence spokesperson Jarrod Agen told The Post via email. “The Vice President is focused entirely on his duties and promoting the President’s agenda and looks forward to a swift conclusion of this matter.”