Wondering why Trump's response to Russiagate is so disjointed?
President Donald Trump’s lawyers are helping him think through whether to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller for an interview or fire him amid a potential staff shake-up.
Last Saturday, Trump’s top personal lawyer, John Dowd, wanted Mueller’s probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election ended. He first said his statement was as Trump’s counsel, but then backtracked and said it was his personal view.
That contradicts what Ty Cobb, the lead White House lawyer working on the Trump-Russia case, has advocated for months: Cobb wants Trump to work closely with Mueller’s team and cooperate fully.
However, Dowd and Cobb may soon be on the way out. The New York Times reported that Dowd is thinking of stepping down because the president misbehaves despite advice to the contrary, but in the same article Dowd denied his resignation was imminent. The Times also reported Trump may soon fire Cobb for pushing a more cooperative strategy, although Trump has apparently reassured Cobb his job is safe.
What is clear is that the team is larger — for now. Joseph diGenova, who joined Trump’s legal squad on Monday, is most famous for his hyperbolic attacks on the Russia investigation during Fox News hits.
He will likely push for Trump to reverse course, arguing that the Mueller investigation should be shut down and the FBI officials who participated in it be investigated. “The appointment of a special counsel will go down in history as one of the worst decisions ever made by a Justice Department official,” as he put it in a January 30 Fox News interview.
So it seems Trump’s legal team is headed for dysfunction. But that makes sense, in a way, because there isn’t actually one single “Trump legal team.” There are several lawyers who represent Trump in different ways, and each has his own role, agenda, and jurisdiction.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/21/17143128/firing-mueller-trump-russia-legalwrap
President Donald Trump’s lawyers are helping him think through whether to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller for an interview or fire him amid a potential staff shake-up.
Last Saturday, Trump’s top personal lawyer, John Dowd, wanted Mueller’s probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election ended. He first said his statement was as Trump’s counsel, but then backtracked and said it was his personal view.
That contradicts what Ty Cobb, the lead White House lawyer working on the Trump-Russia case, has advocated for months: Cobb wants Trump to work closely with Mueller’s team and cooperate fully.
However, Dowd and Cobb may soon be on the way out. The New York Times reported that Dowd is thinking of stepping down because the president misbehaves despite advice to the contrary, but in the same article Dowd denied his resignation was imminent. The Times also reported Trump may soon fire Cobb for pushing a more cooperative strategy, although Trump has apparently reassured Cobb his job is safe.
What is clear is that the team is larger — for now. Joseph diGenova, who joined Trump’s legal squad on Monday, is most famous for his hyperbolic attacks on the Russia investigation during Fox News hits.
He will likely push for Trump to reverse course, arguing that the Mueller investigation should be shut down and the FBI officials who participated in it be investigated. “The appointment of a special counsel will go down in history as one of the worst decisions ever made by a Justice Department official,” as he put it in a January 30 Fox News interview.
So it seems Trump’s legal team is headed for dysfunction. But that makes sense, in a way, because there isn’t actually one single “Trump legal team.” There are several lawyers who represent Trump in different ways, and each has his own role, agenda, and jurisdiction.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/21/17143128/firing-mueller-trump-russia-legalwrap