Update: Rudy Giuliani just dropped an important clue about the fate of a possible Trump-Mueller interview.
In a tweet posted Wednesday, Washington Post White House reporter Robert Costa said Rudy Giuliani told him in an on-the-record statement taken minutes after the Cobb news broke that if Trump does submit to an interview with Mueller, it will be a brief one.
“Some people have talked about a possible 12-hour interview,” Giuliani said. “If it happens, that’s not going to happen…it’d be, max, two to three hours around a narrow set of questions.”
NEWS-Giuliani, mins after Cobb exit, goes on-rec w/ @WashingtonPost re: Mueller intvw. “Some people have talked about a possible 12-hour interview. If it happens, 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.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 2, 2018
Futhermore, Giuliani revealed that Trump Attorney Jay Sekulow had been the dominant force behind Cobb’s departure, as well as the (still unconfirmed) hiring of Flood.
NEWS – Giuliani just now: “We’ve been talking about this. We are going to ask for a narrowing of the questions… we’d like to know more about what they have, if anything… They are going to need to narrow, to a great extent, the questions.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 2, 2018
Giuliani re: Cobb: “[Legal team] had a long talk about it last week. The president let us know he had Emmet coming for an interview and we talked it through. Jay had the most to do with it. Jay felt he need someone that more aggressive.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 2, 2018
* * *
Some days, it seems like President Trump’s legal team gets more press than he does. And today is definitely one of those days.
In this case, we’re referring the New York Times‘ latest Trump legal team exclusive (its second in three days) – a report that White House lawyer Ty Cobb is “retiring” from the president’s service. Meanwhile, as his replacement, President Trump is reportedly in talks with Emmet T Flood, the veteran Washington lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment, to take Cobb’s place.
Cobb’s retirement was unexpected, and is the latest major shakeup on Trump’s legal team, which is struggling to negotiate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller over the terms of a potential presidential interview.
Just this morning, Bloomberg reported that Cobb is the only person on Trump’s legal team who has a valid security clearance. But since Cobb is technically employed by the White House, he can’t serve as Trump’s lead personal attorney.
Ty Cobb
“It has been an honor to serve the country in this capacity at the White House,” he said. “I wish everybody well moving forward.”
Of course, this isn’t Flood’s first go-round at the Mueller probe media circus. News organizations reported earlier this year that Flood was being courted to join Trump’s team, though he never officially joined.
According to the Times, Flood is expected to take a more adversarial approach with Mueller than Cobb, who had urged the president to embrace a conciliatory path that would end with him sitting for an interview with investigators (and quite possibly walking into a perjury trap).
Mr. Flood is expected to take a more adversarial approach to the investigation than Mr. Cobb, who had pushed Mr. Trump to strike a cooperative tone. Mr. Flood initially spoke with the White House last summer about working for the president, but the talks ultimately fell apart because Mr. Flood did not want to deal with Mr. Trump’s longtime New York lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, who was overseeing the president’s dealings with the special counsel at the time.
[…]
It was not clear what prompted Mr. Flood to sign on. The president’s legal team for the special counsel investigation has been marked by turnover and uncertain strategy, complicated by a client liable to dismiss his lawyers’ advice. That factor prompted Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer on the case, John Dowd, to quit this year. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who is a longtime confidant of the president, has come on board pledging to negotiate an interview for the president with the special counsel.
Rudy Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team last month to take on the “minor role” of negotiating the terms of an interview with Mueller, might now find himself stymied by Flood.
Flood is best-known for his work as a member of Clinton’s legal team during his impeachment proceedings, but Flood did not have a high-profile role.
Cobb’s tenure at the White House was marred by clashes with former Trump lead attorney John Dowd and with White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn, who had warned Cobb that he was rushing to turn over documents requested by Mueller, and that he should take the time to review the documents and weigh whether to assert executive privilege.
But his departure is the surest sign that Trump’s legal team might be leaning toward denying Mueller the in-person interview with Trump that he so desperately craves. Jay Sekulow, the current lead attorney, is said to be in favor of asserting executive privilege to avoid an interview.
