On the morning after President Donald Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of his top lawyers circulated an email equating Confederate general Robert E. Lee with George Washington and saying Black Lives Matter had been “totally infiltrated” by terrorists, The New York Times reported.

The email was forwarded Wednesday to more than two dozen lawyers, officials, journalists and others by John Dowd, the former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner who assumed a prominent role in the president's legal team in June, the Times reported.

In an excerpt of the email, which the Times said “echoed secessionist Civil War propaganda,” its author wrote “there literally is no difference between” Lee and Washington, citing their ownership of slaves and their roles as rebel commanders.