President Donald Trump’s new lawyer praised special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday.
“I have a very respectful and professional relationship with Bob Mueller. I think very highly of him,” Ty Cobb told Politico. Cobb will begin working on Monday as part of the White House legal team responding to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Politico noted.
Cobb’s praise for Mueller is strikingly different from the open antagonism shown by many White House staff. President Donald Trump has raged at recent days at his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, whose recusal from everything Russia- and campaign-related paved the way for Mueller’s appointment.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager and now an informal adviser to the President, relayed those sentiments on ABC News Wednesday: “The President has a legal authority to fire Robert Mueller if he wants to,” he said. “Now, Robert Mueller reports to [deputy attorney general] Rod Rosenstein, but Rod Rosenstein could also be terminated. The Constitution is very clear: The President, as the chief law executive officer of this country, has the ability to hire and fire executives who work for him.”
Cobb told Politico he would “provide background willingly when appropriate,” referring to the practice of relaying contextual information to the press without being named as a source for it.
