The New York Times published a fascinating look on Sunday at internal clashes between President Trump's various lawyers, who are fighting diligently over the extent to which the administration should cooperate with Robert Mueller's myriad requests for emails and documents. Ty Cobb, the curly-mustachioed attorney helming the president's response to the Mueller investigation, apparently wants to be more forthcoming with disclosures, while White House counsel Don McGahn, citing concerns about preserving the scope of executive privilege, has been reluctant to so readily accede to the special counsel's demands. Cobb has grown irritated with the White House's reticence of late, theorizing that McGahn is keeping "a couple documents locked in a safe" and may have even planted a spy on Cobb's team.

How did the Times learn so many fascinating details about the extremely sensitive discussions between the leaders of the president's army of well-compensated attorneys, you ask? Because Cobb and John Dowd, another personal attorney for Donald Trump, elected to discuss them in great detail over lunch at BLT Steak, a thoroughly mediocre Washington dining establishment that has nonetheless become a fixture for the city's power players and aspiring power players alike—and that happens to be located immediately adjacent to the Times' D.C. bureau. Lest there be any doubt about the hilariously literal nature of this statement, one of the reporters appearing on the story's byline posted photographic evidence of his scoop.

To the best of my knowledge, few law schools dedicate in the curriculum a lesson in "not talking about the most salacious aspects of your client's case while eating outdoors in a part of D.C. where anyone walking by could be a reporter or, even worse, an honest-to-God Department of Justice prosecutor," but that is probably because they assume that even law students have at least some semblance of common sense that would prevent them from doing so. You'll be shocked to hear that the Times' report allegedly did little to improve the relationship between McGahn and his power lunch enthusiast counterparts.

After The Times contacted the White House about the situation, Mr. McGahn privately erupted at Mr. Cobb, according to people informed about the confrontation who asked not to be named describing internal matters. John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, sharply reprimanded Mr. Cobb for his indiscretion, the people said.

Back in Washington's halcyon days of investigative journalism, reporters seeking to expose the most earth-shattering scandals in American political history met secretly with code-named sources in nondescript suburban parking garages. Now, thanks to both wondrous leaps forward in technology and also this White House's astonishing lack of self-awareness, all they have to do is take a few moments to familiarize themselves with the Voice Notes app and then go out and enjoy a Cobb salad.

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