The White House's lead lawyer during the Mueller investigation is to leave his post, President Donald Trump announced Saturday.

“Emmet Flood, who came to the White House to help me with the Mueller Report, will be leaving service on June 14th. He has done an outstanding job – NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION! Case Closed! Emmet is my friend, and I thank him for the GREAT JOB he has done,” Trump tweeted .


Following Mueller’s public statement earlier this week, there was a feeling by Trump and his aides that the Justice Department investigation into whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election was officially over, according to several people close to the White House. The investigation, they feel, has now moved to Capitol Hill.

Flood, who was brought on October 2018, called special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russian interference and subsequent obstruction of justice probe a “law school exam paper” in a scathing 5-page letter last month, where he also claimed the special counsel's office did not follow proper regulation.

“This species of public report has no basis in the relevant regulation and no precedent in the history of special/independent counsel investigations,” Flood wrote.

Some Republicans close to Trump had advised the president to tap Flood when White House counsel Don McGahn left.


They thought Flood, who served as George W. Bush’s lead lawyer in responding to congressional investigations, could have helped attract other top-notch lawyers.

But Trump had Flood focus on the Mueller investigation and picked Washington, D.C., lawyer Pat Cipollone to be White House counsel.

Flood’s departure, which was widely expected after the probe ended, will undoubtedly disappoint some who wanted him to stay and help Trump fight a slew of congressional investigations.

Mueller announced his own resignation and the closure of the special counsel's office last week in his first televised address since the investigation concluded.