Tuesday, December 12, 2017 6:09:11 PM
Inside Trump’s legal team: Trying to protect the president from Mueller’s ‘killers’
By Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman December 12 at 6:00 AM
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team of a dozen-plus lawyers and investigators have proven stealthy in their wide-ranging Russia probe. They have surprised the White House with one indictment after another, and summoned President Trump’s confidants for lengthy interviews. In the case of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort alone, court filings show, they have collected more than 400,000 documents and 36 electronic devices.
Mueller and his deputies are, in the fearful word of some Trump loyalists, “killers.”
Trump’s response, by contrast, is being directed by John M. Dowd, the president’s personal lawyer retired from a large firm who works essentially as a one-man band, and Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer who works out of a small office in the West Wing basement, near the cafeteria where staffers get lunch.
Dowd and Cobb, along with attorney Jay Sekulow, serve not only as Trump’s lawyers but also as his strategists, publicists, therapists and — based on Dowd’s claim that he wrote a controversial presidential tweet — ghostwriters.
As the multiple Russia investigations deepen, President Trump has gathered a group of controversial lawyers to defend him, within the White House and outside it (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
Who are the lawyers defending Trump?
Video 3:05
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-legal-team-trying-to-protect-the-president-from-muellers-killers/2017/12/11/57e180c0-dc74-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_trumplawyers-706am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.157519800fd6
President Trump, former FBI director James B. Comey and former national security adviser Michael Flynn's stories are entangled, to say the least.
(Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
When Mueller requests documents, they provide them. When Trump reacts to new twists in the Russia saga, they seek to calm him down. When he has questions about the law, such as the Logan Act or Magnitsky Act, they explain it. And when the president frets that Mueller may be getting too close to him, they assure him he has done nothing wrong, urge him to resist attacking the special counsel and insist that the investigation is wrapping up — first, they said, by Thanksgiving, then by Christmas and now by early next year.
As lawyers for the world’s highest-profile client, Dowd and Cobb have come under scrutiny for their every move and utterance — and the criticism has been harsh.
Many in the Washington legal community chide them as being indiscreet, error-prone and outmatched. They say public blunders — such as Dowd and Cobb casually chatting about their legal strategy on the patio of a downtown Washington steakhouse in September within earshot of a reporter — suggest a lack of discipline.
Critics also question why, seven months into Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, they have not assembled a battalion of lawyers as President Bill Clinton had when he was being investigated by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. And some Trump loyalists, spoiling for a fight, say the president’s lawyers should be combative rather than cooperative with Mueller.
“There certainly have been gaffes,” said Alan Dershowitz, a criminal defense attorney and Harvard Law School professor who has won praise from Trump for his television appearances defending a president’s constitutional prerogative to fire his FBI director.
“These are not the kinds of things that one would expect from the most powerful man in America, who has a choice of anybody to be his defense counsel,” Dershowitz said. “Well — almost anybody,” he added, saying that he is not interested in the job.
[Trump’s legal team faces tensions — and a client who often takes his own counsel]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-legal-team-faces-tensions--and-a-client-who-often-takes-his-own-counsel/2017/07/13/07361fc6-67eb-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.b1e437200f4c
Lawyer Ty Cobb, left, in 2004 and Jay Sekulow, in 2015.
The two, along with John Dowd, are representing President Trump in the Russia probe, serving as his strategists, publicists and therapists. (AP)
This portrait of Trump’s legal team and defense strategy is based on interviews with more than two dozen White House officials, lawyers and other people connected to the Russia probe, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The chorus of criticism may be growing louder, but Trump is not singing along. By most accounts, the president is satisfied with his representation — and talks to Cobb several times a day — though advisers say he has occasionally discussed bringing on new lawyers.
Trump, 71, connects with Dowd, 76, and Cobb, in his mid-60s, as contemporaries. He appreciates their no-nonsense old-school style, and likes that neither appears on television, believing their absence from the airwaves deprives what he calls the Russia “witch hunt” of oxygen, according to Trump’s advisers.
A former Marine Corps captain, Dowd has a gruff demeanor and has proven able at times to cool Trump’s temper and convince him of the virtues of pragmatism over pugnacity, aides said.
Some Trump advisers dismiss Cobb’s predictions that the Mueller probe is nearing its conclusions as misleading happy talk, but the president has internalized it as reality. One reason for Trump’s faith is his belief that his lawyers are plugged in. Cobb tells him he is in frequent, and sometimes daily, contact with the special counsel’s office, according to people familiar with the dynamic.
Over Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump boasted to friends that Cobb was “brilliant” and that he was certain Mueller would soon exonerate him.
Cobb declined to comment, and Dowd responded to an email inquiry with two words: “No, thanks.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “The president is happy with his legal team.”
Cobb works as a White House lawyer whose salary is paid by the government, and his duty is to the office of the presidency, whereas Dowd and Sekulow are employed by Trump and represent him personally. Dowd and Sekulow enjoy attorney-client privilege, but Cobb does not — meaning that Mueller could seek access to Cobb’s notes or ask to interview him about his interactions with the president.
[...]
Sari Horwitz and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-legal-team-trying-to-protect-the-president-from-muellers-killers/2017/12/11/57e180c0-dc74-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_trumplawyers-706am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6420c75f58ba
1123 Comments
By Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman December 12 at 6:00 AM
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team of a dozen-plus lawyers and investigators have proven stealthy in their wide-ranging Russia probe. They have surprised the White House with one indictment after another, and summoned President Trump’s confidants for lengthy interviews. In the case of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort alone, court filings show, they have collected more than 400,000 documents and 36 electronic devices.
Mueller and his deputies are, in the fearful word of some Trump loyalists, “killers.”
Trump’s response, by contrast, is being directed by John M. Dowd, the president’s personal lawyer retired from a large firm who works essentially as a one-man band, and Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer who works out of a small office in the West Wing basement, near the cafeteria where staffers get lunch.
Dowd and Cobb, along with attorney Jay Sekulow, serve not only as Trump’s lawyers but also as his strategists, publicists, therapists and — based on Dowd’s claim that he wrote a controversial presidential tweet — ghostwriters.
As the multiple Russia investigations deepen, President Trump has gathered a group of controversial lawyers to defend him, within the White House and outside it (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
Who are the lawyers defending Trump?
Video 3:05
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-legal-team-trying-to-protect-the-president-from-muellers-killers/2017/12/11/57e180c0-dc74-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_trumplawyers-706am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.157519800fd6
President Trump, former FBI director James B. Comey and former national security adviser Michael Flynn's stories are entangled, to say the least.
(Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
When Mueller requests documents, they provide them. When Trump reacts to new twists in the Russia saga, they seek to calm him down. When he has questions about the law, such as the Logan Act or Magnitsky Act, they explain it. And when the president frets that Mueller may be getting too close to him, they assure him he has done nothing wrong, urge him to resist attacking the special counsel and insist that the investigation is wrapping up — first, they said, by Thanksgiving, then by Christmas and now by early next year.
As lawyers for the world’s highest-profile client, Dowd and Cobb have come under scrutiny for their every move and utterance — and the criticism has been harsh.
Many in the Washington legal community chide them as being indiscreet, error-prone and outmatched. They say public blunders — such as Dowd and Cobb casually chatting about their legal strategy on the patio of a downtown Washington steakhouse in September within earshot of a reporter — suggest a lack of discipline.
Critics also question why, seven months into Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, they have not assembled a battalion of lawyers as President Bill Clinton had when he was being investigated by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. And some Trump loyalists, spoiling for a fight, say the president’s lawyers should be combative rather than cooperative with Mueller.
“There certainly have been gaffes,” said Alan Dershowitz, a criminal defense attorney and Harvard Law School professor who has won praise from Trump for his television appearances defending a president’s constitutional prerogative to fire his FBI director.
“These are not the kinds of things that one would expect from the most powerful man in America, who has a choice of anybody to be his defense counsel,” Dershowitz said. “Well — almost anybody,” he added, saying that he is not interested in the job.
[Trump’s legal team faces tensions — and a client who often takes his own counsel]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-legal-team-faces-tensions--and-a-client-who-often-takes-his-own-counsel/2017/07/13/07361fc6-67eb-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.b1e437200f4c
Lawyer Ty Cobb, left, in 2004 and Jay Sekulow, in 2015.
The two, along with John Dowd, are representing President Trump in the Russia probe, serving as his strategists, publicists and therapists. (AP)
This portrait of Trump’s legal team and defense strategy is based on interviews with more than two dozen White House officials, lawyers and other people connected to the Russia probe, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The chorus of criticism may be growing louder, but Trump is not singing along. By most accounts, the president is satisfied with his representation — and talks to Cobb several times a day — though advisers say he has occasionally discussed bringing on new lawyers.
Trump, 71, connects with Dowd, 76, and Cobb, in his mid-60s, as contemporaries. He appreciates their no-nonsense old-school style, and likes that neither appears on television, believing their absence from the airwaves deprives what he calls the Russia “witch hunt” of oxygen, according to Trump’s advisers.
A former Marine Corps captain, Dowd has a gruff demeanor and has proven able at times to cool Trump’s temper and convince him of the virtues of pragmatism over pugnacity, aides said.
Some Trump advisers dismiss Cobb’s predictions that the Mueller probe is nearing its conclusions as misleading happy talk, but the president has internalized it as reality. One reason for Trump’s faith is his belief that his lawyers are plugged in. Cobb tells him he is in frequent, and sometimes daily, contact with the special counsel’s office, according to people familiar with the dynamic.
Over Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump boasted to friends that Cobb was “brilliant” and that he was certain Mueller would soon exonerate him.
Cobb declined to comment, and Dowd responded to an email inquiry with two words: “No, thanks.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “The president is happy with his legal team.”
Cobb works as a White House lawyer whose salary is paid by the government, and his duty is to the office of the presidency, whereas Dowd and Sekulow are employed by Trump and represent him personally. Dowd and Sekulow enjoy attorney-client privilege, but Cobb does not — meaning that Mueller could seek access to Cobb’s notes or ask to interview him about his interactions with the president.
[...]
Sari Horwitz and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-legal-team-trying-to-protect-the-president-from-muellers-killers/2017/12/11/57e180c0-dc74-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_trumplawyers-706am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6420c75f58ba
1123 Comments
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