John Dowd exiting the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York City on March 8, 2011 Photo : Yana Paskova ( Getty Images )

Being the lawyer for a client who won’t listen has to be difficult. Being a lawyer for the “president of not listening” even when objectives are written in all caps has to be impossible. So on Thursday, the president’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, decided that he’d been working for a sadist long enough and quit.




The New York Times reports that this isn’t the first time that Dowd, who headed the president’s legal team, had considered saying “I’m out.” In fact, he’d reportedly considered leaving several times in recent months after becoming more agitated that Donald Trump was ignoring his advice.

Dowd reportedly advised Trump to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s been investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, among other Russia-related messiness. Instead of working with Mueller, Trump has been Twitter-bashing the special counsel and the investigation, because that’s what petulant children do when they know they’re in trouble—they act out.


As the focus of Mueller’s investigation seems to be bearing down on the president, the machismo-intoxicated Trump, who believes himself to be a military-trained combat assassin, has declared privately that he would sit down with Mueller, which his lawyers know is a bad idea because he lies. Not only does Trump lie, but he super lies and then lies some more and then purposely lies to cover up earlier lies and then accidentally lies; then, when all else fails, he lies some more.

Here’s how the Times reports the sudden departure of Trump’s lead lawyer:

Mr. Dowd’s departure marks the most prominent shake-up for the president’s legal team since he took over from the president’s longtime personal lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz. It is not clear who will run the team in his place. Mr. Trump’s other personal lawyer for the investigation, Jay Sekulow, is liked by the president and recently brought on one of his longtime friends, Joseph E. diGenova, to join the team. Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer for the investigation, came aboard around the same time as Mr. Dowd and Mr. Sekulow and advocated on behalf of cooperating with the special counsel. But the president has discussed with close associates in recent days whether to fire Mr. Cobb, while reassuring Mr. Cobb that he had no plans to do so.

As the Mueller investigation heats up and the president continues to throw his toys around his room while kicking and screaming on the floor, it’s a safe bet that Dowd’s departure won’t be the last.