Free Republic

President Trump’s new picks for his legal team in the Russia investigation cannot join because of “conflicts,” Jay Sekulow, counsel to the president, said Sunday. “The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the President's Special Counsel legal team,” Sekulow said in a statement. Trump added the husband-wife team after John Dowd, a top member of the team, resigned last week. Sekulow said the conflicts do not prevent diGenova and Toensing from assisting the president in other legal matters, but declined to reveal the nature of the conflicts. The couple's firm has represented other...

John Dowd, a personal attorney to President Trump, resigned his post Thursday amid a shake-up in the president’s legal team as Trump has sought more firepower to deal with the special counsel’s Russia investigation. The resignation came Thursday, according to three people familiar with the decision. Dowd declined to comment. Dowd’s departure was a largely mutual decision made after the president lost confidence in his ability to handle special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and Dowd became frustrated with Trump’s recent efforts to bring on new attorneys, they said. In recent weeks, Dowd clashed with the president, including an...

President Donald J. Trump's personal attorney, John Dowd, called for an end to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion and interference between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election. “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 Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,” Dowd said in a statement given to Fox News. “Just end it on the merits in light of...

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd drafted the president's Saturday morning tweet that stated he fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying not only to Vice President Mike Pence but also to the FBI, Dowd told ABC News Saturday. *snip* But now Dowd, corroborated by a second source familiar with the matter, said the tweet was not drafted by the president himself but rather by the lawyer -- and done so in a "sloppy" manner. The White House, which has insisted that tweets from the president should be taken as official statements, has declined to comment.

John Dowd, President Trump's outside lawyer, outlined to me a new and highly controversial defense/theory in the Russia probe: A president cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice. The "President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case," Dowd claims. Dowd says he drafted this weekend's Trump tweet that many thought strengthened the case for obstruction: The tweet suggested Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when he was fired, raising new questions about the later firing of FBI Director...

A lawyer for President Trump who admitted writing an eyebrow-raising tweet about former national security adviser Michael Flynn said a commander in chief cannot obstruct justice. The “president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution’s Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case,” John Dowd, Trump’s personal lawyer, told Axios. He told the website he wrote a tweet posted on Trump’s personal account on Saturday that acknowledged the president knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when he asked former FBI Director James Comey to lay off investigating...

FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records.

CHICAGO | John Dowd, the Washington-based attorney who brought down Pete Rose with his investigation of Rose's baseball gambling, isn't thrilled with baseball's leadership. Tools In an e-mail and phone interview with the Dayton Daily News, Dowd blames baseball's upper management, commissioner Bud Selig and union leader Don Fehr, in particular, for the game's steroids mess. "Commissioners have to be tough to maintain order in a game that is so vulnerable to the criminal element that seems to corrupt and compromise this national treasure," Dowd said.