President Donald Trump has shaken up his legal team in the last three weeks — and he’s still not happy.

The president has been griping to associates that Rudy Giuliani, his new personal attorney, has failed to shut down the Stormy Daniels hush money saga. And he has expressed frustration that Giuliani’s media appearances are raising more questions than they are answering, turning the story into a days-long drama capped by the admission Sunday that the president may have made similar payments to other women.


For now, White House aides said, Giuliani still has a direct line in to Trump – the two speak almost daily – and nobody in the West Wing is eager to insert themselves between the two irascible New Yorkers by yanking Giuliani off TV. But some aides said they expect the president to fire Giuliani if his behavior doesn’t change.

In a phone interview Monday, Giuliani pushed back against the notion that the president is unhappy with his performance. “If I’m not up to it, I don’t know who is,” he told POLITICO. “I know the Justice Department better than just about anyone.”

Giuliani’s press tour has coincided with the announcement that White House lawyer Ty Cobb will be leaving and Emmet Flood, who worked on President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, will joining the president’s legal team.

White House aides said that while they have been trying to recruit Flood for months, the president did not want to lose Cobb in the trade. Trump and his daughter Ivanka both personally called Cobb to express concern about his decision, according to a White House aide with knowledge of the situation.

Flood’s hire was a long time coming: Trump, White House counsel Don McGahn, Kelly and Cobb have all been in rare alignment with their shared desire to bring him on board. McGahn himself has advocated for his hiring for over a year, according to one White House aide.

But the president never made clear what the reporting structure of his Russia team would be when Flood’s hiring was announced, according to two people familiar with the situation, creating uncertainty about whether Cobb and Flood would be co-equals or whether one would report to the other.

In fact, the president initially told several aides that Flood would replace McGahn – not Cobb, who has been the lead lawyer inside the White House on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation for several months.

But McGahn has decided to stay on, at least for now, and could do so for several more months should another vacancy arise on the Supreme Court, where several people close to him said he is eager to lead another confirmation fight if he can.

Rather than work on a legal team with hazy lines of authority, Cobb, who announced his retirement on Wednesday, decided to bow out, those sources said.

“It just results in confusion – who am I supposed to go to, who has what duties, who has the last word,” said Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel for President Barack Obama.

When Kelly hosted a reception for staffers last Thursday, several West Wing aides were surprised to spot Flood there mingling with his new colleagues, eating pizza and drinking beer on the patio outside Kelly’s office, less than 24 hours after his hiring was announced. Cobb was absent from the patio party, a spring tradition under former chief of staff Reince Priebus and the first since Kelly took over.

The latest legal turnover – and the uncertainty about whether the churn is at an end – comes as Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen faces criminal investigation in New York, potentially creating new jeopardy for the president and his family.

From the outset, the president’s legal teams, both in and outside the White House, have been riven by the same factionalism and drama that has defined Trump’s political team. Trump’s New York-based outside lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, left the team after his role was gradually reduced – and eventually replaced entirely – by Washington attorney John Dowd.

Dowd, who advocated a combative approach toward Mueller, repeatedly clashed with Cobb, who favored a more conciliatory tack – and who was overheard publicly discussing his disagreements with other members of the president’s team in public more than once. A year later, all three men are out.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday dismissed any concerns Trump has had about Giuliani’s recent performance.

“I didn’t speak with him specifically about his feelings about it but certainly feels that he is an added member – added value, member to his outside special counsel,” Sanders told reporters.

For his part, Cobb has been trying to downplay any drama surrounding his departure. He has told colleagues that he has long been planning to depart when his piece of the work – collecting documents and organizing interviews with the special counsel – is completed.

Eggleston, who has known Cobb for decades, added that this was a natural time for him to leave. “I think that his view is basically that the documents that need to be produced have already been produced, the people who have been interviewed have already been interviewed,” he said. The option, he added, was “to go now or to go some time from now.”

Cobb, in a brief interview, said he was making sure there would be no friction in the transition.

“I have a very talented and devoted team, who are fully up to speed, have good relationships with the special counsel and are prepared to fully serve Mr. Flood in a smooth transition,” Cobb said, noting that two of his deputies, Steven Groves and Omeed Assefi, will stay on to support to Flood.

It is unclear whether Flood will ultimately keep them on, or bring in his own team from his law firm, Williams & Connolly.

