Ty Cobb Retires As White House Lawyer, Likely Replaced With Clinton Impeachment Lawyer
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Wed, 05/02/2018
Some days, it seems like President Trump’s legal team gets more press than he does. And today is definitely one of those days.
We’re referring, of course, to the New York Times’ latest Trump legal team exclusive (its second in three days) – a report that White House lawyer Ty Cobb is “retiring” from the president’s service.
President Trump is reportedly in talks with Emmet T Flood, the veteran Washington lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment, to take Cobb’s place.
Cobb’s retirement was unexpected, and is the latest major shakeup on Trump’s legal team, which is struggling to negotiate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller over the terms of a potential presidential interview.
Just this morning, Bloomberg reported that Cobb is the only person on Trump’s legal team who has a valid security clearance. But since Cobb is technically employed by the White House, he can’t serve as Trump’s lead personal attorney.
“It has been an honor to serve the country in this capacity at the White House,” he said. “I wish everybody well moving forward.”
Of course, this isn’t Flood’s first go-round at the Mueller probe media circus. News organizations reported earlier this year that Flood was being courted to join Trump’s team, though he never officially joined.
According to the Times, Flood is expected to take a more adversarial approach with Mueller than Cobb, who had urged the president to embrace a conciliatory path that would end with him sitting for an interview with investigators (and quite possibly walking into a perjury trap).
Mr. Flood is expected to take a more adversarial approach to the investigation than Mr. Cobb, who had pushed Mr. Trump to strike a cooperative tone. Mr. Flood initially spoke with the White House last summer about working for the president, but the talks ultimately fell apart because Mr. Flood did not want to deal with Mr. Trump’s longtime New York lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, who was overseeing the president’s dealings with the special counsel at the time.
[…]
It was not clear what prompted Mr. Flood to sign on. The president’s legal team for the special counsel investigation has been marked by turnover and uncertain strategy, complicated by a client liable to dismiss his lawyers’ advice. That factor prompted Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer on the case, John Dowd, to quit this year. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who is a longtime confidant of the president, has come on board pledging to negotiate an interview for the president with the special counsel.
Rudy Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team last month to take on the “minor role” of negotiating the terms of an interview with Mueller, might now find himself stymied by Flood.
The Rest…HERE
