“They’re not on the same team”: why Trump’s lawyers keep clashing over the Russia probe

Here’s a simple guide to the various lawyers representing President Trump.

President Donald Trump’s lawyers have spent the past few weeks making conflicting statements about how they would defend against special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Trump-Russia ties, causing many to wonder just who is actually in charge of representing the president.

Here’s just one example: After reports suggesting Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because he wouldn’t end the Trump-Russia probe, Trump’s top personal lawyer, John Dowd, made a controversial claim that the president cannot obstruct justice. Why? Because Trump is the president and is therefore the nation’s top law enforcement officer under the Constitution. Legal experts tell Vox’s Sean Illing they disagree with that interpretation because the president isn’t above the law.

Just one day later, Ty Cobb, the lead White House lawyer working on the Trump-Russia case, politely but explicitly rejected Dowd’s analysis.

“There is no strategy of which I'm aware to rely boldly on the proclamation that obstruction is always impossible with regard to a president," Cobb said in a statement to ABC News. "I expect a fact-based exoneration that does not require that level of legal analysis.”

It was a strange moment that seemed to imply dysfunction and discord within Trump’s legal team. But that’s because there isn’t actually one single “Trump legal team.” There are several lawyers who represent Trump in different ways, and each has his own role, agenda, and jurisdiction.

Here, then, is a simple guide to the various lawyers representing President Trump: who they are, what roles they have in the Trump-Russia investigation, and why they seem to clash so often.

Don McGahn, White House counsel

Don McGahn, who was a Trump campaign lawyer, is now the official White House counsel — that is, the White House’s top lawyer. That means he has multiple responsibilities such as vetting potential nominees and ensuring that federal employees follow ethics laws.

“Rarely does an order or a memo leave the White House without the counsel’s sign-off,” Mother Jones reported in a McGahn profile this summer.

McGahn’s highest calling is to keep members of government — including the president — out of legal trouble. However, McGahn is also tied up in the Russia investigation, and that makes his ability to work on the Russia case much harder.

Here’s why: In May, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified that she told McGahn former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI during the Russia investigation. That matters because it’s possible the White House’s top lawyer knew Flynn had committed a crime when Trump chose to fire Comey.

The veracity of Yates’s claim has since been challenged, but it’s still bad news for McGahn. He may even soon find himself in interviews with Mueller’s team. As a result, earlier this year McGahn recommended that Trump hire another lawyer to take care of the White House’s response to the Russia probe.

Enter Ty Cobb.

Ty Cobb, White House special counsel

Ty Cobb joined the White House in July as a special counsel. He oversees the White House’s legal and media response to the Russia investigation. Politico reports that his day-to-day responsibilities include reviewing internal documents related to the Russia investigation and responding to reporters.

Cobb’s main duty is to ensure no one in the White House breaks the law — like obstruct justice — as Mueller’s probe intensifies. That’s important to stress: Cobb’s legal loyalty isn’t only to Trump, but to all members of the executive branch. But unlike McGahn, Cobb’s portfolio is much narrower.

Experts note that Cobb’s role is legally ambiguous: How can he represent the White House but also focus his time and attention on the Russia probe, which centers on the president? It’s still not entirely clear how Cobb can really separate the two as he does his job, experts tell me.

But there is someone whose sole job is to represent the president from any legal trouble brought on by Mueller’s probe.

John Dowd, Trump’s top personal lawyer

John Dowd, a veteran Washington defense attorney, is Trump’s top personal lawyer. That means he’s paid by the president, not by the federal government.

Dowd joined Trump’s personal defense in June specifically to defend Trump personally from any charges by Mueller. It’s unclear exactly how many lawyers Dowd leads, however, but he works closely with Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel at the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, who regularly defends Trump in the media.

Dowd’s role highlights the important distinction between Trump the president and Trump the man. Dowd has no connections to Trump’s role as president; he’s there solely to represent Trump as an individual. After all, much of what Mueller is investigating happened before Trump became president.

So the question then becomes: How closely do these lawyers interact?

“They’re not on the same team”

McGahn, Cobb, and Dowd interact to discuss their work, but they ultimately have different jobs to do.

“There’s plenty of room to work together, but they have to do it in a way that’s consistent with their ethical obligations and their legal obligations,” Andy Wright, a former White House lawyer who is now at Savannah Law School, told me in an interview. “They’re not on the same team.”

This can play out in important ways, especially as it relates to which lawyer Trump — or government officials possibly under investigation — should talk to about the Russia probe.

Neil Eggleston, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House counsel from 2014 to 2017, told me that “there is no attorney-client privilege when a White House lawyer talks to the president of the United States or anybody else in the White House,” because a White House lawyer works for the government, not the individual.

“And so if Don McGahn had a one-on-one conversation with President Trump about whether he should fire Comey, there’s no attorney-client privilege that would attach to that,” Eggleston added.

In other words, Trump is better off discussing Russia-probe matters with his personal lawyer, Dowd, because attorney-client privilege applies to that relationship, which means he doesn’t have to divulge any of their conversations to Mueller. Cobb and McGahn can’t help him with that.

Because the lawyers have different roles and responsibilities, disagreements over how best to defend Trump are pretty much inevitable. For example, Dowd and Cobb famously met in September at a restaurant in Washington, DC, to discuss their work.

Cobb complained that McGahn was hiding documents he needed in a safe and also worried there was “a McGahn spy” on his team. It’s unclear if any of that is true, but it goes to show just how deep the divisions among the president’s lawyers actually are.