Photo: AP / Andrew Harnik
White House lawyer Ty Cobb has been serving as the main contact between special counsel Robert Mueller but will retire at the end of the month and will be replaced by white-collar defense attorney Emmet Flood, according to The Washington Post.
Senior administration officials confirmed the change on Wednesday and said Flood, currently a partner at Williams & Connolly who previously served as a special counsel during the George W. Bush administration and represented President Bill Clinton during House proceedings to impeach him, was interviewed in March by President Donald Trump.
Trump denied the March meeting happened in a tweet which said it was a "fake story," since “I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job.”
The news of Cobb's departure was first reported by the New York Times several weeks ago, who noted the latest legal team change comes as the attorneys are facing more pressure to determine whether or not Trump should agree for an interview with Mueller.
The special counsel is tasked with investigating whether Trump obstructed justice and tried to impede the criminal probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Post also reported earlier this week Mueller raised the possibility of subpoenaing Trump if he did not agree to attend a voluntary interview.
Former New York Mayor and Trump's current personal attorney for dealing with the special counsel Rudolph Giuliani said Cobb was not forced to leave, “It was just time for him to go, but he’s still going to be available to us,."
He also noted Jay Sekulow, another lawyer on Trump's legal team, "had the most to do with it" since he needed someone more aggressive.
“That’s not a criticism of Ty, but it’s just about how we’re going to do this," Giuliani said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement which said Cobb was retiring.
“For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month,” she said.
Giuliani also said Trump's legal team would push Mueller to display what evidence he has while attempting to limit the questions for the president.
“Some people have talked about a possible 12-hour interview,” he said. “That’s not going to happen, I’ll tell you that. It’d be, max, two to three hours around a narrow set of questions.”
One source told The Post Flood “feels strongly that this whole investigation is essentially an attempt to undermine an election. He doesn’t like the idea of an independent counsel.”
Another anonymous source said Flood's selection comes at a pivotal time in the investigation since Cobb was spearheading efforts to producing documents in response to requests from Mueller, but there is now a looming legal showdown about the presidential interview process.
“You had the discovery phase and now you’re entering the litigation phase,” said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations with The Post. “Who do you want on your side if Mueller decides to subpoena the president? You want to have your wartime consigliere. Emmet is a quintessential wartime consigliere.”
Flood also has strong ties to White House Counsel Don McGahn, who wanted to hire Flood last summer but he declined after clashing with Trump's former personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.
Kasowitz was later replaced with John Down, who selected Cobb to join the White House legal team last August.
After Down resigned in March, the White House had the opportunity to entirely redesign Trump's legal team and bring Flood back in to handle the ongoing investigation.
Cobb was one of those who urged Trump to agree to the interview in order to dismiss some of the lingering questions concerning his campaign and presidency.
But Trump doubled down against the idea, last month lashing out at the idea after FBI investigators working with federal prosecutors in Manhattan executed a surprise search warrant of his personal attorney Michael Cohen's office, residences, and hotel room.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
