Donald Trump's response to an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election was thrown into turmoil as his lead lawyer resigned.

John Dowd left after Mr Trump was said to have increasingly ignored his advice on how to deal with the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mr Trump's legal team have been in negotiations in recent weeks over the scope and terms of a possible upcoming interview of the president by Mr Mueller.

Mr Dowd was said to have advised privately against Mr Trump agreeing to be interviewed, but the president was increasingly bullish about doing so in order to bring the long investigation to a head.

Shortly after his top lawyer's resignation Mr Trump was asked if he was still willing to be interviewed by Mr Mueller. He replied: "I would like to."

In recent days, against Mr Dowd's advice, Mr Trump also began publicly attacking Mr Mueller, including by name on Twitter, where he called the probe a biased "witch hunt".