UPDATE: Daily Beast reports that a longtime D.C. lawyer who has known Emmet Flood, Trump’s newest attorney, told them that there isn’t the slightest chance he would allow this interview with Mueller to proceed:
President Donald Trump’s legal team became significantly more cohesive on Wednesday with the addition of Emmet Flood, a veteran white collar defense attorney. It also became more aggressive, which could prove tricky for Special Counsel Bob Mueller.
A longtime Washington lawyer who’s known Flood for quite some time and who spoke anonymously because of client sensitivities said there’s no chance Flood will let the president sit for an interview with Mueller.
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There’s been a lot of movement on the legal front concerning President Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Last night, The Washington Post reported that there was a tense meeting between the president’s lawyers and Mueller in which Trump’s legal team said there was no obligation for them to arrange time for questions from investigators. Mueller politely reminded them that he could just subpoena the president. Now, we have reports that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who joined the president’s legal team last month, said Trump could be sitting down with the Mueller investigation to answer questions for a two-to-three hour period.
Rudy Giuliani in an interview with @spettypi confirms Emmet Flood is joining White House legal team to replace Ty Cobb.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 2, 2018
Giuliani says Cobb has done a great job, and Trump likes him very much.
Trump and his lawyers are inclined to say yes to a Mueller interview, Giuliani says.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 2, 2018
NEWS-Giuliani, mins after Cobb exit, goes on-rec w/ @WashingtonPost re: Mueller intvw. “Some people have talked about a possible 12-hour interview. If it happens, that’s not going to happen, I’ll tell you that. It’d be, max, two to three hours around a narrow set of questions."
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 2, 2018
NEWS - Giuliani just now: "We’ve been talking about this. We are going to ask for a narrowing of the questions... we’d like to know more about what they have, if anything... They are going to need to narrow, to a great extent, the questions."
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 2, 2018
Giuliani re: Cobb: “[Legal team] had a long talk about it last week. The president let us know he had Emmet coming for an interview and we talked it through. Jay had the most to do with it. Jay felt he need someone that more aggressive."
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 2, 2018
“Some people have talked about a possible 12-hour interview. If it happens, that’s not going to happen, I’ll tell you that. It’d be, max, two to three hours around a narrow set of questions,” said Giuliani.
This on the record remark came after Ty Cobb, one of Trump’s lawyers, announced that he was making his way to the exit on the whole matter. Cortney wrote that Emmet T. Flood, who represented former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings, would replace him. Cobb will officially depart the Trump legal team at the end of May. Reportedly, Jay Sekulow, another Trump attorney, felt Mr. Cobb just wasn’t “aggressive enough” on the matter. We’ll keep you updated.
“For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month,” @PressSec says of White House lawyer Ty Cobb departure.
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) May 2, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) _ White House: Ty Cobb, White House lawyer representing Trump in Russia probe, retiring at end of May.
— Ken Thomas (@KThomasDC) May 2, 2018