Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb defended Special Counsel Robert Mueller in an interview with ABC News published Tuesday morning, calling Mueller an “American hero” and saying his investigation was no “witch hunt.”
Cobb was notorious during his White House days for predicting the Mueller investigation was near an end — then revising his prediction for a new deadline. He first predicted it would be over by Thanksgiving 2017, or by the end of that year. He then said it would be over by early 2018.
More than a year later, the investigation continues — and Mueller has failed to turn up any proof that Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government.
Still, Cobb told ABC News that he believed Mueller had done a good job:
Ty Cobb, the veteran Washington attorney who represented the White House as special counsel Robert Mueller ramped up his investigation into Russian meddling, said he considers the man leading the probe “an American hero” and does not share President Donald Trump’s view that the Russia inquiry is a politically motivated hoax.
“I don’t feel the same way about Mueller,” Cobb said in an extensive interview for the latest episode of ABC News’ podcast The Investigation. “I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt.”
Cobb explained that he expected Mueller’s findings to show no evidence of wrongdoing by the president. In contrast, he said, Democrats’ efforts to investigate the president would continue regardless of the evidence: “It’s never going to be over,” he said.
Cobb’s interview was released the day after congressional Democrats demanded information on 81 individuals with connections to the Trump administration and Trump campaign, leading even former Barack Obama aide David Axelrod to remark that the Democrats seemed to be doing their best to prove Trump right about a “witch hunt.”
The Democrats’ requests — which the president has referred to as “McCarthyism,” quoting Fox News host Sean Hannity — come as William Barr takes over as Attorney General. Unlike his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, Barr will not be recusing himself from the Mueller probe, which could mean that the Special Counsel will have to conclude it soon and provide a report.
Democrats are bracing themselves for disappointment at the lack of evidence on Russia; the inquisition into Trump’s associates, relatives, and private dealings before the presidency is seen by many observers as an attempt to compensate for the deflation of the “Russia collusion” narrative.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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