President Trump’s lead lawyer in special counsel Inquiry, John Dowd resigns

 

President Trump’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned on Thursday as his strategy for cooperating with the inquiry grew increasingly at odds with the president's desire for a more aggressive posture.  


Dowd, who took over the president’s legal team last summer and considered leaving several times, ultimately concluded that President Trump was ignoring his advice

According to the Washington Post, “I love the president,” Mr. Dowd said in a telephone interview. “I wish him the best of luck. I think he has a really good case.”

His departure marked the most significant shake-up for the president’s legal team in months and underscores the president’s growing frustration with the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russia’s election interference and possible ties to Trump associates as well as whether the president obstructed the inquiry.  

The president has in recent days begun publicly assailing Mueller, a shift in tone that appears to be born of Trump’s concern that the investigation is bearing down on him more directly. He has also insisted he should sit for an interview with the special counsel’s office, even though Dowd believed it was a bad idea.