Donald Trump’s allies are beginning to question whether his legal team is up to the job of insulating him from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. And after reviewing the Washington Post's profile of the few lawyers going toe-to-toe with Mueller's team of some 16 crackerjack lawyers, the only conclusion grounded in any sort of reality is: no.
Mueller and his deputies are, in the fearful word of some Trump loyalists, “killers.”
Trump's main lawyers—John M. Dowd and Jay Sekulow on the personal side and Ty Cobb, who represents the office of the presidency—have a number of forces working against them.
First, they are extraordinarily busy little bees, doing everything from trying to educate Donnie on the law as well as smooth his ruffled feathers whenever he thinks Mueller is getting "too close."
When Mueller requests documents, they provide them. When Trump reacts to new twists in the Russia saga, they seek to calm him down. When he has questions about the law, such as the Logan Act or Magnitsky Act, they explain it. And when the president frets that Mueller may be getting too close to him, they assure him he has done nothing wrong, urge him to resist attacking the special counsel and insist that the investigation is wrapping up — first, they said, by Thanksgiving, then by Christmas and now by early next year.
Second, Trump seems to view their antiquation as an attribute and values the fact that he never has to compete with them for attention above all else. Because when you're a president under the microscope of a criminal investigation, nothing is better than more publicity.
Trump, 71, connects with Dowd, 76, and Cobb, in his mid-60s, as contemporaries. He appreciates their no-nonsense old-school style, and likes that neither appears on television, believing their absence from the airwaves deprives what he calls the Russia “witch hunt” of oxygen, according to Trump’s advisers.
Third, Trump buys into their rosy/delusional worldview hook, line, and sinker.
Some Trump advisers dismiss Cobb’s predictions that the Mueller probe is nearing its conclusions as misleading happy talk, but the president has internalized it as reality. One reason for Trump’s faith is his belief that his lawyers are plugged in. Cobb tells him he is in frequent, and sometimes daily, contact with the special counsel’s office, according to people familiar with the dynamic.
Fourth, Trump has always hired the best and brightest when it comes to lawyers.
In the early weeks of the Mueller probe, the hard-charging [Marc] Kasowitz would scurry in and out of the Oval Office and the adjoining dining room in what aides described as a running — and at times frenzied — commentary with Trump about all things Russia.
Really, Saturday Night Live couldn’t write a more laughable skit.
Fifth, no one else wanted the job.
Trump tried to hire or has considered hiring more than a half dozen top litigators to help manage the Russia probe, including William A. Burck, Mark Filip, Emmet Flood, Robert J. Giuffra, Ted B. Olson, Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., according to several people with knowledge of the president’s deliberations. For various reasons, none took the job.
Sixth, Trump's picks aren't exactly at the top of their game.
Dowd was widely perceived by other lawyers to be in the twilight of his career, having formally retired in 2015 from Akin Gump, where he had worked since 1990.
And still, Trump allies are left wondering if they're up to the job. But not Trump—he hearts them.
At one point, Dowd was filmed swearing at and flashing his middle finger at reporters covering the trial. It garnered him unflattering press coverage — but it was the kind of dramatic move that a client like Trump could see as an attribute.