For a certain period of time, it was reported that the administration was having problems trying to interest lawyers to defend President Trump due to the chance that he won't follow their advice. In recent weeks, President Trump was able to add Ty Cobb to his wall of defense against the Russia investigation which is currently being led by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

Cobb tries redirecting White House counsel

On Thursday, July 20, the spokesman for Trump's personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz, Mark Corallo, resigned over the warring factions in the White House, the chance that he was being lied to and for refusing to gang up on Mueller.

It's been reported that when Ty Cobb had a meeting with the President and his lawyers days before Corallo left, that according to White House sources that Cobb tried to "instill some discipline" in that meeting over how the administration was to handle all incoming questions on the Russia investigation.

Cobb did what he was supposed to do with trying to refocus the team as he was revealed as the person who will specifically focus on press related inquiries about the investigation. The reason lawyers have said that they would not work for Trump was specifically because he refuses to listen to their advice. The difficulty of operating in such an environment also goes with the fact that White House staff has to make sure they are careful with what they say, what they do and how they interact.

The difficulties of a chaotic Trump-style defense

White House aides have already reportedly lawyered up in case they're approached by Mueller. The White House Counsel (not Trump's personal defense) had already briefed staff to preserve all documents, messages and anything the special counsel might need. It would appear that Cobb found, however, during his first week of prep that no one has control of President Trump.

This is evident when the President opened up to the New York Times in an interview he had that Wednesday where he spoke about the Russia investigation at length. In a way, that might already undermine Cobb. Cobb is said to be one of the best criminal lawyers with experience that Trump's person lawyer Kasowitz doesn't have. On July 18, the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center Jeffrey Rosen was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered where he detailed how difficult it already was for the White House counsel to interact with the President's own defense team.

Mr. Rosen said that with each lawyer comes a different style of representation and role but that the interaction between both offices could prove somewhat difficult. This is because the President's own team won't likely share information with the White House's official office. Rosen stated that President Trump's personal team had his ear and that they enjoyed the attorney-client privilege with Trump while the White House counsel might not. The way Trump likes to play it, they would all have to compete for that privilege.
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