Trump hires lawyer who defended Clinton during impeachment
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday hired a veteran attorney who represented former president Bill Clinton during his impeachment process as the White House shifted to a more aggressive approach to a special counsel investigation that has reached a critical stage.
The White House announced the hiring of lawyer Emmet Flood after disclosing the retirement of Ty Cobb, who for months has been the administration’s point person dealing with special counsel Robert Mueller.
It’s the latest shakeup for a legal team grappling with unresolved questions on how to protect the president from legal and political jeopardy in Mueller’s Russia probe, which is nearing the one-year mark.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Cobb had been discussing the decision for weeks and would retire at the end of May, and that Flood would be joining the White House staff to “represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt.”
The replacement of Cobb with Flood might usher in a more adversarial stance toward the Mueller team as Trump’s lawyers debate whether to make the president available for an interview with the special counsel and brace for the prospect of a grand jury subpoena if they refuse.
Flood was embroiled in the bitterly partisan Clinton impeachment fight 20 years ago. His law firm, Williams & Connolly, is one of Washington’s most prominent, with a reputation for aggressive advocacy for its clients and a history of tangling with the government.
Trump’s lead personal lawyer, John Dowd, left in March. Another attorney whom Trump tried to bring on ultimately passed because of conflicts, and the president two weeks ago added former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a pair of former prosecutors, Martin and Jane Raskin, to work alongside mainstay lawyer Jay Sekulow.
Critical decisions lie ahead. The president’s legal team has not committed him to an interview with Mueller, who has dozens of questions on a broad array of topics he’d like to ask. Trump initially said he was eager for an interview, but he hasn’t said so recently. His view of Mueller soured further after raids last month that targeted one of his personal lawyers, Michael Cohen, in a separate investigation.
Those interview negotiations are hugely consequential, especially after Dowd confirmed this week that Mueller’s team in March raised the prospect of issuing a grand jury subpoena for Trump, an extraordinary move that would seek to force a sitting president to testify under oath.
Trump lashed out against the investigation in familiar fashion Wednesday, tweeting: “There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap).”
Trump echoed the concerns of a small group of House conservatives who have been criticizing the Justice Department for not turning over certain investigation documents.
“What are they afraid of?” Trump tweeted. “At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!”