Attorney Ty Cobb has left President Donald Trump's legal team, according to The New York Times, and has been replaced with lawyer Emmet Flood.
Flood, a longtime Washington D.C. attorney, represented former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment in 1999.
Cobb told the Times that he had told Trump several weeks ago that he wanted to resign. He said he planned to stay until the end of May to help Flood transition to the job.
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White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed that Cobb had talked to the president a few weeks ago about leaving his post.
A White House statement read, “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.”
“Emmet Flood will be joining the White House staff to represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt. Ty Cobb, a friend of the President, who has done a terrific job, will be retiring at the end of the month,” an addiitioanl statement from Sanders said.
Flood also was the lead lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office during President George W. Bush’s second term. He worked on the investigation into the Bush administration’s firing of seven U.S. attorneys. Flood also represented former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cobb had been Trump’s point man in handling the White House's response to charges of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election and special counsel Robert Mueller's requests for documents and witness interviews.
His retirement comes as the president’s personal legal team has been negotiating the terms of a possible sit-down between Trump and Mueller’s team. Trump has said he will not sit down with Mueller’s team.
Two weeks ago, former New York mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani announced that he had jointed Trump’s legal team.
In March, Trump's lead lawyer John Dowd resigned.
Credit: Chip Somodevilla
Credit: Chip Somodevilla
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