Speculation mushroomed at the White House on Thursday afternoon that Rudy Giuliani would soon be out as President Donald Trump's personal attorney, following reports he pursued more than $200,000 in business from the Ukraine government while searching for embarrassing information about the president's political opponents.

Should Giuliani leave the Trump legal team, several sources told Newsmax, he was likely to be replaced by former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. — someone President Trump wanted very much to hire in October until discovering Gowdy would have to wait until January to become his lawyer because of federal lobbying rules.

In response to a question from Newsmax on Oct. 10 about Gowdy becoming his chief attorney, Trump replied before boarding the Marine One helicopter the former congressman has "a problem . . . he can't start for another couple of months because of lobbying rules and regulations."

He offered no details, however, and simply told us "you'll have to ask about that."

There has been virtually no discussion from the White House since then about Gowdy, best known as chairman of the House panel that investigated the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya in 2012.

Several obervers of the Trump legal operation concluded Gowdy was "out of the picture" as far as being the president's top legal adviser. Now, speculation about him is back.

Newsmax tried to reach Gowdy at his South Carolina law office, but he did not return our calls at presstime.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.