Donald Trump’s backbiting lawyers are trying to destroy each other
Donald Trump is dealing with several major scandals and liabilities right now, particularly whenle it comes to the worsening Trump-Russia scandal and the escalating Trump-Russia investigation. Now Trump has a new problem: his attorneys in the scandal, long sloppy and bumbling to begin with, are now frustrated to the point that they’re trying to destroy each other. The details make clear that this is no exaggeration.
To be clear, Ty Cobb and Don McGahn both technically work for the White House, and not for Trump personally, which is part of the problem. McGahn is the White House Counsel and represents the legal interests of the White House, to the point that he doesn’t even share attorney-client privilege with Trump, yet Trump has repeatedly tried to use him as a de facto personal attorney. Cobb was hired specifically to personally represent Trump in the Russia scandal, but Trump put him on the White House payroll so he wouldn’t have to pay him out of pocket. The real problem is that these two men hate each other.
Here’s how McGahn views Cobb, according to a new Washington Post report: “McGahn has told others that Cobb is not a careful lawyer and is not carefully reviewing documents or preparing people to testify.” (link). And how does Cobb feel in return? According to McGahn, Cobb has been leaking stories to the media aimed at sabotaging McGahn. Cobb, of course, is the guy who once infamously blabbed about Trump’s legal strategy while having dinner in a restaurant, without realizing that he was sitting next to a reporter from the New York Times, who promptly reported all of it.
Somehow, these are the two bumbling backbiters upon whom Donald Trump has bet his presidency and his freedom. Even worse, there’s more evidence than ever that McGahn has cut some kind of deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. According to that same WaPo piece: “McGahn’s office prepared a detailed reconstruction of the 18 days between the time of Yates’s warning and Flynn’s firing, a document that has now been turned over to Mueller for his review.” Trump has already had to part ways with one attorney who was sending threatening emails to strangers in the middle of the night.
