Trump considers reshuffling his legal team

United States President Donald Trump's legal team was poised for a shake-up on Monday, as he openly discussed firing one of his lawyers, another considered resigning, and a third one - who pushed theories on television that Trump was framed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), joined the team.

According to The New York Times, President Trump has weighed aloud in recent days to his close associates whether to dismiss his lawyer Ty Cobb, who had pushed most strongly a strategy of cooperating fully with the special counsel investigation.

The President, however, reassured Cobb that he had no plans to fire him, according to local media reports.

 

On the other hand, Trump's lead lawyer, John Dowd, has contemplated leaving his post because he has concluded that he has no control over the behavior of the President.

Ignoring his lawyers' advice, President Trump has reverted to a more aggressive strategy of publicly assailing the inquiry that he initially adopted in the weeks immediately after the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was appointed.

Now, the President has begun attacking Mueller himself.

The shift in tone appears to be a product of the President's concern that the investigation into possible ties between his associates and Russia's election interference is bearing down on him more directly.

And the legal team's collapse comes as his lawyers are confronting one of their most critical tasks; advising the president on whether to agree to sit for an interview with the special counsel's office.

"I'm sitting here working on the president's case right now," The New York Times quoted Dowd as saying.

Further, on Monday he hired Joseph E. diGenova, a longtime Washington lawyer who has appeared regularly on Fox News in recent months to claim that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had manufactured evidence against Donald Trump to aid Hillary Clinton.

President Trump is also discussing adding other lawyers to the team, according to one person with knowledge of the matter.

Cobb, Dowd and another lawyer, Jay Sekulow, took over last summer from Marc Kasowitz, who had represented Trump in high-profile lawsuits and urged an aggressive posture towards Mueller, who was appointed last May.