“They’re out to get me,” Trump said. “This is an injustice. This is unfair. How could this have happened? It’s all Jeff Sessions’ fault. This is all politically motivated. Rod Rosenstein doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. He’s a Democrat. He’s from Maryland.”
As he paced the floor, Trump said, “Rosenstein was one of the people who said to fire Comey and wrote me this letter. How could he possibly be supervising this investigation?”
Bob Mueller had all these conflicts that ought to bar him from being special counsel investigating him. “He was a member of one of my golf courses”—Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia—and there was a dispute over fees and Mueller resigned. Mueller’s law firm had previously represented Trump’s son-in-law.
“I’m getting punched,” Trump said. “I have to punch back. In order for it to be a fair fight, I have to be fighting.”
Back and forth most of the day, the president rotated to watch TV in the dining room and then come out to the Oval Office in a frenzy, asking questions and voicing his anger that he had lost control of the investigation.
“I am the president,” Trump said. “I can fire anybody that I want. They can’t be investigating me for firing Comey. And Comey deserved to be fired! Everybody hated him. He was awful.”
CHAPTER
21
Marc Kasowitz, the seasoned, gray-haired litigator who had represented Trump for decades in divorces and bankruptcies, asked John Dowd, 76, one of the most experienced attorneys in white-collar criminal defense, to his office in New York at 4:00 p.m. on May 25, 2017.
“We need you in Washington to represent the president,” to defend Trump in the Russia investigation being launched by special counsel Robert Mueller, Kasowitz said. Several high-profile attorneys had already turned down the job, citing conflicts or the difficulty in managing Trump. But Dowd, a former prosecutor with a long list of prominent clients, jumped at the chance to round out a 47-year legal career with the highest-profile case in the country.
“Oh my God,” he replied. “That’s incredible. I’d be happy to represent the president.”
“It’s no day at the beach.”
“I think I’ve figured that out,” Dowd said.
Dowd was both good-old-boy figure and hard-nosed investigator. He had been a Marine Corps lawyer in the 1960s and a mob prosecutor as chief of the Justice Department Organized Crime Strike Force in the 1970s. In the 1980s, he was special counsel to the commissioner of baseball. He ran several investigations, the most prominent leading to the banning of Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds for betting on baseball games. After that, as a defense attorney, Dowd represented Wall Street and political figures, including Senator John McCain in the Keating Five ethics investigation. He had been a partner in the prominent law firm Akin Gump and was now retired.
Dowd had a conference call with Trump and Kasowitz, and then several conversations with the president. The Mueller investigation, Trump told him, was consuming him and his presidency. He had done nothing wrong. “John, this thing is an enormous burden. It interferes particularly with foreign affairs. It’s embarrassing to be in the middle of a deal and the guy, the premier or the prime minister on the other side says, ‘Hey Donald, are you going to be around?’ It’s like a kick in the nuts.”
Dowd said he would not charge by the hour. He would set a fee. They agreed on $100,000 a month, which was about half his normal rate. Trump instructed him to send the invoice to his office in New York and he would be paid the next day. (He was.)
The president was outraged by the Mueller investigation. He listed his complaints to Dowd.
First, he had been blindsided by Attorney General Sessions’s March 2 decision recusing himself from any investigation of Russian election meddling. He had expected political protection from his attorney general and was now left unprotected.
Second, Trump related how he learned on May 17 that Mueller had been appointed special counsel by Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. It was absolutely outrageous. He had been in the Oval Office with Sessions when one of the White House lawyers brought the news. Sessions said, “I didn’t know about this.” He had turned to Sessions, “Well, doesn’t he work for you?” Sessions’s recusal left Rosenstein in charge of any Russia inquiry.
Worse, Trump said, he had interviewed Mueller just the day before to come back as FBI director and he had turned him down. Now Mueller was suddenly in charge. “So two times I’m fucking bushwhacked by the Department of Justice.”
Third, Trump said that after he fired Comey, the former FBI director had gone on a testifying and leaking crusade to state that Trump asked him to drop the Flynn investigation. “I didn’t do anything,” Trump told Dowd. “It’s all bullshit. Comey’s a fucking liar.”
Kasowitz concurred that he and one of his partners had investigated to see if there was anything that connected Trump to the Russian meddling. After a full month their initial conclusion was there was nothing.
The way Trump rattled off the denials suggested to Dowd that his outrage was genuine. Of course, that did not mean he was innocent. In addition to blaming Comey, Trump said he did it to himself by not having strong people and lawyers.
Dowd examined the one-page Rosenstein order appointing Mueller May 17. Not only did it authorize a Russian investigation but it directed Mueller to investigate “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the [Russian] investigation.” Dowd had never seen anyone in Justice with such broad authority.
The president expressed his distrust. A lot of Democrats were on Mueller’s team of prosecutors.
Dowd agreed there might be a political motive. “This is a royal fuck job by a bunch of losers,” he told Trump.
Dowd’s theory of defending a client is to be his advocate, and also to be a friend. Trump began calling him at all hours, all days. Despite Trump’s outgoing, in-your-face style, Dowd could see the president was very lonely.
Dowd discussed the known facts with Trump’s legal advisers and reviewed the material for possible vulnerabilities. Based on a preliminary review of the known evidence, he did not see anything to support a charge of collusion with the Russians or obstruction of justice.
Perhaps the most troubling pieces of evidence were former FBI director James Comey’s memo and testimony that Trump had appealed to him to go easy on General Flynn after Flynn’s firing. According to Comey, Trump had said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Comey said he believed Trump was asking him to drop the investigation.
Trump denied he had said that or anything like it.
What did you say? Dowd asked the president.
“Well, I didn’t say that.” Trump said Comey had raised the prospect of Trump coming to FBI headquarters to talk to the agents. “And so I was asking him when he wanted me to do that. And he said he would get back to me. But I never commented on Flynn. I mean, as far as I was concerned, Flynn was over.”
* * *
Dowd continued his own inquiry, being briefed on the testimony of all known witnesses and reviewing documents.
He wanted to establish a relationship with Mueller, whom he knew. Years ago at a Marine Corps parade, Dowd had run into Mueller when he was FBI director.
“What are you up to?” Mueller asked.
“I’m representing Congressman Don Young.”
“That crook?” Mueller replied. “How could you do that?”
“That’s our system,” answered Dowd, who was offended that the FBI director would speak that way. Young was never charged, though the House Ethics Committee later rebuked him. Young soon became the longest-serving member of Congress.
While Mueller had not yet made a specific request for documents, one would likely be coming soon. White House Counsel Don McGahn did not want to turn over much of anything. He wanted the president to assert privileges, such as executive privilege.