Trump lawyer resigns as President shakes up legal team to take on Mueller
A personal lawyer for Donald Trump has resigned from his position as the President shakes up his legal team and its approach to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The resignation of John Dowd, who was leading Mr Trump’s legal team, follows reports of repeated clashes between him and the President in recent weeks, and Mr Dowd is said to have made his decision after determining that his
advice was increasingly being ignored.
It has been reported that Mr Dowd’s departure was largely a mutual decision between him and Mr Trump, even if they disagreed over strategy. The President reportedly lost confidence in Mr Dowd’s ability to deal with Mr Mueller’s probe during the confrontations that have played out in recent weeks. “I love the President and wish him well,” Mr Dowd said in a statement after his resignation.
“John has been a valuable part of the team and a friend and we will continue to cooperate fully with the special counsel,” Jay Sekulow, a spokesman for Mr Trump’s legal team, told The Washington Post. Mr Trump himself had recently insisted that he is happy with the way his legal team has been handling the Russia inquiry, naming Mr Dowd alongside Ty Cobb, and Mr Sekulow, and saying they “are doing a great job”.
Last week, Mr Dowd attracted criticism to the Trump team by calling on the Justice Department to shut down Mr Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying that the investigation was “corrupted” by political bias. Those calls were made just after former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired, leading to a strong, bipartisan rebuke of the administration in Congress, where even some Republicans said that impeachment could be necessary if Mr Mueller is fired.
“I pray that the Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier,” Mr Dowd said at the time.
Mr Comey is the former head of the FBI who was fired by Mr Trump’s Justice Department last year. The “dossier” in question refers to a contentious research file compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. The Trump legal team, in addition to that public speculation about firing Mr Mueller, has been negotiating with the special counsel over if, how, and when the President might be interviewed in the Russia probe.
Mr Trump has reportedly been privately saying that he thinks he should sit down with Mr Mueller’s team, even as he has begun to publicly attack Mr Mueller in a shift of tone that has been interpreted as the President becoming increasingly concerned that the Russia investigation is beginning to focus more explicitly on him. Mr Dowd had insisted that meeting with the Mueller team would be a bad idea.
It is not clear who will take over as the lead on Mr Trump’s team, but a veteran Washington lawyer, Joseph diGenova, was hired earlier this week. Mr diGenova has been expected to take up a more offensive role to fill what the President sees as a lack of people publicly defending him and challenging Mr Mueller.