If Donald Trump was paying you to give him advice about what he should do, how long would it take before you got to the point where you realized your counsel goes only so far - because Trump trusts no one's wisdom as much as he trusts his own?
John Dowd seems to have reached that point today, which is why he has resigned as Trump's lead attorney on the Russia probe:
Just last weekend, Dowd created a firestorm when he said "I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe's boss James Comeybased upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier," Dowd said reacting to the termination of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
"John Dowd is a friend and has been a valuable member of our legal team. We will continue our ongoing representation of the President and our cooperation with the Office of Special Counsel,” Jay Sekulow, counsel to the president told ABC News.
The news was first reported by The New York Times.
Sources familiar with Dowd’s resignation tell ABC News over the last several months say the attorney has felt President Trump was taking less of his advice.
I doubt Dowd's resignation was necessitated by his comment babout Mueller ending the investigation, because Trump completely agrees and has said so many times himself. The political class, particularly Republicans, seem terrified of the impression that Trump may be laying a heavy hand on Mueller. But Trump and his team think it's necessary to point out that this whole investigation has gone far afield from the original purpose - which was to show if there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians - and has never come anywhere close to showing there was collusion.
I don't know why special counsels have to be treated as sacrosanct when they're free to go rogue and turn their charters into unlimited fishing expeditions of anything they can find. The United States of America does not need an unrestrainted inquisitor, which is exactly what all these people have become - whether you're talking about Lawrence Walsh, Ken Starr, Patrick Fitgerald or Robert Mueller. Someone should point out when they're abusing their almost unlimited power.
But will it matter much that Dowd is leaving? Probably not, if only because Trump listens to outside advice but is rarely swayed to go very far outside his own instincts. A new lawyer will step in who will try to control the circumstances of Trump being questioned by Mueller - assuming that ever happens, which it should not as it would be a huge perjury trap - but and Trump will ultimately do whatever he wants to do.
That's what Trump does.
Maybe Dowd felt like he was collecting legal fees without the president realizing much value in return. Or maybe he was afraid the whole thing would go sideways as a result of Trump not listening to him, and that he (Dowd) would suffer in his professional reputation as a result.
The bottom line is that Trump won't be hurt in any serious way if Mueller can't show there was collusion, and after all this time there's no reason in the world to believe he can or will show that. The identity of Donald Trump's lawyer in the matter is irrelevant.
If Donald Trump was paying you to give him advice about what he should do, how long would it take before you got to the point where you realized your counsel goes only so far - because Trump trusts no one's wisdom as much as he trusts his own?
John Dowd seems to have reached that point today, which is why he has resigned as Trump's lead attorney on the Russia probe:
