Dan Cogdell, a leading criminal defense lawyer in Houston, had a simple reaction when reports emerged this week that the president was considering firing Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.

“Trump trying to fire Mueller is a dumber idea than a bucket of hair,” Cogdell said.

But Cogdell also wants to put the brakes on the characterizations by Trump's surrogates about a former adversary: Andrew Weissmann, who led the Enron task force prosecution and whom Mueller has picked to assist in probing the Trump campaign's Russia ties. Cogdell squared off against Weissmann while defending former Enron executives, including Sheila Kahanek, one of the few indicted Enron executives who won an acquittal at trial.