It's sort of painful watching some people tie themselves into Gordian knots trying to "explain away" the Trump campaign's unequivocal statement today.

Your time and brain power would be better spent in working out the pristine genius-level logic behind Donald Trump wanting to issue a clean, clear statement that Powell is NOT part of his campaign's legal team.

In doing so, it would be foolhardy not to factor in to your solution to that conundrum the rather high-profile client Ms. Powell has been representing (I won't say "disastrously"), because the distancing of Ms. Powell from the Trump circles also distances that high-profile client—who spent many years in the so-called "Intelligence Community" (a.k.a. "Deep State").

N.B.: For some people reading here, coming up with a logical answer that satisfies all the known facts stated above will be as soul-wrenching as losing faith in a lifelong religion.