Ty Cobb, the lawyer who formerly represented the Trump White House as special counsel Robert Mueller expanded the Russia investigation, had high praise for the prosecutor that President Trump believes is out to get him.

“I don't feel the same way about Mueller,” Cobb told ABC News’ “The Investigation” podcast. “I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt.”

“I think Bob Mueller's an American hero … even though he came from an arguably privileged background, he has a backbone of steel,” he said. “He walked into a firefight in Vietnam to pull out one of his injured colleagues and was appropriately honored for that. I've known him for 30 years as a prosecutor and a friend. And I think the world of Bob Mueller. He is a very deliberate guy. But he's also a class act. And a very justice-oriented person.”

In his time representing the White House amid Mueller’s inquiry, Cobb said he “never had a bad interaction” with the special counsel or his team of investigators.

Cobb left his White House role in May 2018 after disagreeing with the president on how to respond to Mueller’s investigation. Cobb urged his former colleagues to be more cooperative with Mueller and advised Trump to resist a combative tone.

[Related: Ty Cobb: Mueller investigation is not a 'witch hunt']

“In my first nine-and-a-half months … I was able to prevent the president from going on the attack against Mueller,” Cobb said. “It wasn't really until [Trump lawyer John] Dowd sent out a critical tweet of Mueller and Rudy [Giuliani] joined the team that the president felt unleashed.”

Cobb said he was able to convince Trump to tone down his attacks against Mueller as he became more frustrated with the investigation by telling him the inquiry would be over soon.

“But it's never going to be over,” Cobb predicted. “I mean, this is going to go through 2020. And if the president is re-elected, it'll go beyond that.”

Cobb said he doesn’t expect Mueller will bring charges against Trump.