Trump shakes up legal team — Ty Cobb retires, Clinton impeachment lawyer hired

SHARE Trump shakes up legal team — Ty Cobb retires, Clinton impeachment lawyer hired
cobb_flood_combo_e1525300708141.jpg

Ty Cobb, left, the White House lawyer retiring at end of May. | AP file photo; Attorney Emmet Flood, right, in 2015. (Marissa Rauch/Williams & Connolly LLP Provided Photo via AP)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday hired a veteran attorney who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment process as the White House shifted to a more aggressive approach to the Russia investigation that has reached a critical stage.

The White House announced the hiring of Chicago-born 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 shake-up 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 its one-year anniversary.

White House spokesman 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.”

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer representing President Donald Trump in Russia probe, is retiring at end of May. | AP file photo

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer representing President Donald Trump in Russia probe, is retiring at end of May. | AP file photo

The replacement of Cobb with Flood may herald 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.

Though Cobb did not personally represent the president, he functioned as a critical point person for Mueller’s document and interview requests, coordinated dealings with prosecutors and worked closely with Trump’s personal lawyers. He had repeatedly urged cooperation with the investigation in hopes of bringing it to a quick end, and viewed his role as largely finished now that interviews with dozens of current and former White House official have been completed.

Yet Flood, who was embroiled in the bitterly partisan Clinton impeachment fight 20 years ago, may well advocate a more confrontational approach. 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 — but also representing senior White House officials, including presidents.

Attorney Emmet Flood in Washington on Dec. 8, 2015. (Marissa Rauch/Williams & Connolly LLP Provided Photo via AP)

Attorney Emmet Flood in Washington on Dec. 8, 2015. (Marissa Rauch/Williams & Connolly LLP Provided Photo via AP)

Flood, a former law clerk to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has defended former Vice President Dick Cheney in a lawsuit brought by former CIA official Valerie Plame and represented George W. Bush in executive-privilege disputes with Congress — suggesting he is well-versed in the powers of the presidency and may invoke those authorities as the Mueller investigation moves forward.

Flood was born in Chicago and grew up in west suburban Oak Park and Riverside, according to his Williams & Connolly biography.

Flood was always the top choice of White House counsel Don McGahn for the job Cobb was given last summer, according to a person familiar with the hiring decision who described Flood as a “fighter.” The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Cobb and McGahn had different views on how cooperative the White House should be with the special counsel investigation.

Cobb’s retirement, though not a surprise, was nonetheless the latest evolution for a legal team marked by turnover.

Trump’s lead personal lawyer, John Dowd, left in March. Another attorney who 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 to The Associated Press this week that Mueller’s team in March raised the prospect of issuing a grand jury subpoena for Trump, an extraordinary idea that would seek to force a sitting president to testify under oath.

It was not immediately clear in what context the possibility of a subpoena was raised or how serious Mueller’s prosecutors were about such a move. Mueller is probing not only Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates but possible obstruction of justice by Trump after he took office.

If Mueller’s team decides to subpoena Trump as part of the investigation, the president could still fight it in court or refuse to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.

Trump lashed out against the investigation in familiar fashion Wednesday, saying on Twitter: “There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap).”

Also Wednesday, 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!”

It was unclear what Trump meant by “get involved.”

Several Republican House committee chairmen have recently negotiated deals with the Justice Department to turn over documents related to Russia investigations into Trump and also a 2016 investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The Justice Department says that “dozens of members and staff from both parties” have viewed thousands of classified documents and House staff members have temporary office space in the department to review additional materials.

But some lawmakers who sit on those committees remain unsatisfied, particularly members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Some of them have asked for an unredacted version of a Justice Department document that sets out the scope for Mueller’s probe, a request that the department immediately denied because it pertains to an ongoing investigation.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.


RELATED

Mueller team floated possible subpoena for Trump: attorney

GOP-led House panel officially clears Trump in Russia probe

Giuliani joins legal team defending Trump in Russia probe


The Latest
The acquisition of Tamarack Farms makes Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge a more impactful destination and creates within Hackmatack a major macrosite for conservation.
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.