John Dowd Is Out As Trump Reshapes His Legal Team
It's been another volatile week in the president's response to Robert Mueller's investigation.
March 22, 2018 at 12:09 PM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on National Law Journal
John Dowd. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)
John Dowd, the leading lawyer representing President Donald Trump in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, quit on Thursday, according to multiple reports.
“I love the president and wish him well,” Dowd told CBS News.
The move comes during an already-volatile week for Trump's legal team. The president on Monday added Joseph diGenova to his stable of lawyers, and on Tuesday Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher appellate lawyer Theodore Olson rebuffed an invitation to join the team. Trump also reportedly considered adding Williams & Connolly's Emmet Flood to his legal team, floating the idea in conversation with Flood without informing his other lawyers.
While Olson and Flood have not been publicly vocal about their opinions on the special counsel controversy, diGenova has criticized Mueller's reputation and has claimed Justice Department officials sought to frame the president.
Dowd, who joined the president's private legal team last June, had reportedly grown frustrated with Trump's recent efforts to hire more attorneys. He was also in the news in recent days after he was quoted in The Daily Beast calling on the Justice Department to shut down Mueller's investigation.
A former Marine Corps captain who's now in his late 70s, Dowd retired from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld's partnership in 2015. He has long been a fixture of Washington's white-collar bar—and known for his combative style.
“I've observed him not suffering fools lightly. It's just his general way,” Richard Ben-Veniste, the Mayer Brown partner who led the Watergate special prosecutor's task force, told the NLJ after Dowd joined the Trump team last year.
Early on during his tenure working for the president, Dowd made headlines when he was overheard by a New York Times reporter openly discussing details of the Mueller probe with fellow Trump lawyer Ty Cobb over lunch at BLT Steak.
For now Cobb, a former Hogan Lovells partner, remains in Trump's corner alongside diGenova and Jay Sekulow, who has often handled the team's communications work, including appearances on Sunday talk shows.
Dowd's departure could also potentially heighten the visibility of longtime Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz of Kasowitz Benson Torres, who took a back seat on special counsel-related matters after apologizing for a profanity-laden email exchange with a man he didn't know.
A person with knowledge of Kasowitz's role on Trump's legal team said Kasowitz has remained involved at a strategic level in the team's response to the special counsel's investigation. The source said Dowd's “abrupt departure” requires a response that Kasowitz will be involved in developing, and Kasowitz's role on Trump's team could change.
This week Kasowitz vowed to lodge an appeal after a judge in Manhattan refused to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice” who says the president falsely accused her of lying after she alleged that Trump groped her more than a decade ago.
Read more:
Ted Olson Quickly Rejected Offer To Join Trump Legal Team
New Trump Lawyer Joseph diGenova Has Lots to Say About Many Things
A World of Twitter Pain for Trump Lawyer John Dowd
Trump Lawyer Ty Cobb Says He Took Job With 'Rocks in My Head and Steel Balls'
Trump's $25M Man? White House Releases Unfinished Disclosure on Lawyer's Pay
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