President Donald Trump’s top attorney handling the response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation resigned just days after calling for it to end, according to a report in the New York Times.
Veteran Washington attorney John Dowd had led the president’s legal team since June, when he replaced Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz during a reshuffling.
Dowd had recently argued that the Department of Justice should “bring an end” to the Russia investigation, which he said had been “manufactured” by former FBI Director James Comey.
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The change comes amid uncertainty over the direction of Trump’s legal team. The president recently hired former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova, who has argued on cable TV for a conspiracy theory that the FBI and the Department of Justice are framing Trump. The president also sought to hire powerhouse D.C. lawyer Ted Olson, who declined just hours after the offer was made public.
The turmoil comes as the president’s legal team has to decide how to respond to Mueller’s request for a sit-down interview, which Trump attorney Ty Cobb has argued could be a perjury trap.
Mueller is interested in learning more about Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, the president’s role in crafting a public statement about that meeting and the firings of Comey and national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a recent report on CNN.
Meantime, Trump’s personal lawyers are also suing porn star Stormy Daniels, arguing she violated a hush agreement, and fending off a defamation lawsuit from Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos for calling her a liar over accusations of sexual assault.
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