{"id":624,"date":"2018-03-17T20:16:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T00:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=624"},"modified":"2018-03-17T20:16:36","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T00:16:36","slug":"trump-lawyer-says-special-counsel-inquiry-should-be-ended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=624","title":{"rendered":"Trump Lawyer Says Special Counsel Inquiry Should Be Ended"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0MAGGIE HABERMAN<\/span><\/a><\/span>

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A lawyer for President Trump said that Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, should end the special counsel inquiry.<\/span>\u00a0Credit<\/span>Pete Marovich for The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A lawyer for President Trump called on the Justice Department on Saturday to end the special counsel investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, shifting abruptly to a more adversarial stance as the inquiry appeared to be intensifying.<\/p>\n

The comments by the lawyer, John Dowd, were prompted by\u00a0the f<\/a>iring<\/a>\u00a0late on Friday of the former deputy F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe. Mr. Dowd exhorted Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees the special counsel, to end the inquiry and accused the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, of concocting a baseless investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the F.B.I. Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe\u2019s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier,\u201d Mr. Dowd\u00a0told\u00a0<\/a>The Daily Beast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His remarks capped another round of revelations in recent days that reinvigorated or displayed Mr. Trump\u2019s frustrations with the investigation that has cast a shadow over his presidency. He was said to be angered over\u00a0a New York Times report<\/a>\u00a0that records from the Trump Organization were subpoenaed, and he celebrated the firing of Mr. McCabe, who was among the first F.B.I. officials to scrutinize possible links between Russia and the Trump team, calling his dismissal a \u201cgreat day for Democracy\u201d\u00a0on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Mr. Dowd did not name the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, the implication that he believed Mr. Mueller should be fired was unmistakable. Such a move could set off alarms among Republicans in Congress, who have largely stood by as the president repeatedly assailed the Justice Department and the F.B.I.<\/p>\n

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People close to the president were skeptical that Mr. Dowd was acting on his own. Mr. Trump has a history of using advisers to publicly test a message, giving him some distance from it. And Mr. Dowd\u2019s comments came at a time when members of Mr. Trump\u2019s legal team are jockeying to stay in his favor.<\/p>\n

Hours later, the president echoed Mr. Dowd\u2019s accusations of corruption in the theoretical \u201cdeep state\u201d that Mr. Trump has long cast as a boogeyman working to undermine him.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State,\u201d\u00a0he wrote on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Dowd\u2019s remarks represented an extraordinary shift in public strategy for the Trump legal team. Since taking over the case last summer, Mr. Trump\u2019s attorneys have urged a strategy of restraint, in which the president avoids discussing Mr. Mueller or criticizing him, and the lawyers had done nothing publicly until now that could agitate the special counsel\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

The comments by both Mr. Trump and Mr. Dowd lent credence to Mr. McCabe\u2019s assertion that the president sees his firing as directly tied into Mr. Mueller\u2019s case. Mr. McCabe, who is a potential witness in the investigation, declared that his dismissal was an attempt to undermine it.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sessions\u00a0fired Mr. McCabe<\/a>\u00a0for failing to be forthcoming with the department\u2019s internal watchdog about a conversation he authorized between F.B.I. officials and a journalist.<\/p>\n

Like Mr. Comey, Mr. McCabe also kept contemporaneous memos about his interactions with the president and his conversations with Mr. Comey, a person close to Mr. McCabe said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The memos could support the account of Mr. Comey, who described in\u00a0his<\/a>memos<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0congressional testimony<\/a>\u00a0repeated requests from the president to clear his name. Mr. Comey said\u00a0Mr. Trump also asked him<\/a>\u00a0to end an investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. The special counsel is investigating both matters.<\/p>\n