Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, is stepping down at the end of the month, according to the administration.
He’ll be replaced by Emmet Flood, a veteran attorney who represented former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment hearing, according to the New York Times. Flood has also assisted former president George W. Bush with a series of congressional inquiries, including the investigation into his firing of seven U.S. attorneys.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Wednesday.
The switch is the latest change on a Trump legal team that has been defined by upheaval. Last month, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined the group of lawyers outside the White House after the former head of that team, John Dowd, quit earlier this year amid disagreements about strategy.
The news of Cobb’s retirement comes just hours after he conducted an interview with ABC News in which he said “people are working hard to make decisions and work towards an interview” with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“Assuming that can be concluded favorably, there’ll be an interview,” Cobb said in the interview.
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Earlier this week, the Times published a list of more than 40 questions it said that Mueller’s team wanted the president to answer. The questions focused on conversations between the Russian government and his campaign, as well as actions Trump took related to possible obstruction of justice. Trump has previously said he’d be willing to meet with the special counsel, though will defer to the advice of his attorneys.
Trump’s outside team has also added attorneys Jane Serene Raskin and Marty Raskin in recent weeks.
The Times in March reported that Flood could be tapped to join Trump’s legal team. Trump called it a “false story,” and said he was “very happy” with his attorneys, including Dowd, Cobb and Jay Sekulow.
