Trump's lead attorney bails on him for being world's worst client

Ending a brief spell of personnel calm at the White House, John Dowd announced he was resigning as Trump’s personal attorney. Dowd had been overseeing White House’s response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging Russia investigation.

According to The New York Times, Dowd had been considering leaving for months and “ultimately concluded that Mr. Trump was increasingly ignoring his advice.”

Mueller and his team of attorneys reportedly want to meet with Trump soon and ask him about contacts with Russians during the campaign, as well as any possible obstruction of justice that may have followed. That scenario has sent Trump’s lawyers into something of a panic since their client has such a well-established record of constantly lying, even under oath.

“The focus on Trump himself in Mueller’s pursuits has alarmed and angered the President,” CNN reported on Thursday.

Trump, who had been assured by aides that the Russia probe would be wrapped up last year, seems angry that his lawyers haven’t made the Mueller minefield disappear. He’s now scrambling and hiring a new team of attorneys, including a Fox News-loving conspiracy theorist.

How having a different roster of lawyers will be able to make Mueller and his nearly year-long investigation go away isn’t quite clear.

Dowd made headlines last weekend when he told the Daily Beast that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should shut down the special counsel’s investigation. Hours later, Dowd insisted he hadn’t been speaking as the president’s attorney. But by then, the story had reverberated around Washington.

Apparently taking that as a cue, Trump then tweeted out attacks on Mueller, by name, insisting,”“The Mueller probe should never have been started.” And he repeated the thoroughly debunked lie that “there was no collusion.”

The outbreak created the impression that the president might soon unleash his own “Saturday Night Massacre” and try to shut down the investigation.

If he does, it will no longer be John Dowd’s job to deal with Trump’s mess.