(CNN) President Donald Trump's former lawyer in the Russia investigation says while he initially urged the President to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, he eventually came to believe he had not been dealt with the way he had expected given the cooperation his side had given Mueller.

"He wasn't keeping his side of the bargain," John Dowd told CNN on Saturday.

Dowd defended his attempt to have a good relationship with Mueller at the outset because of what he called the importance of a "trust factor" as a way of "trying to get more done."

"They told us the documents they wanted, we said here they are," he said. "It was total, wide open cooperation."

Dowd originally urged the President to cooperate with Mueller's probe and resist attacking him publicly. He and Trump's other attorneys later advised Trump not to sit down for an interview with the special counsel as he and his colleagues started to make the case that you can't treat the President like anyone else because he's the chief executive. Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's current attorneys, has also said he does not think the President should sit for an interview.

Read More