After taking a lead role in the handling of the federal Russia investigation the White House’s top lawyer Emmet Flood will depart in June, President 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 said in a tweet.
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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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2019
Flood joined the White House in 2018 as a lawyer whose focus was the investigation into Russian meddling. He took over the White House counsel role on a temporary basis in October after Don McGahn left the job until Pat Cipollone could take his place, pending a security clearance review.
The praise in Trump’s tweet Saturday indicates Flood is leaving on good terms with the president. By comparison, Trump has lashed out at McGahn, saying he was “never a big fan,” as Democrats tussled with the Justice Department for documents and testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, including from McGahn himself.
Mueller completed his 22-month investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election in March. His report, released by the Justice Department with redactions in April, shows Mueller’s team was unable to criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Mueller outlined 10 scenarios of possible obstruction in his report, including a look at McGahn resisting Trump’s order to fire the special counsel, but declined to make a determination about whether the president obstructed justice.
Flood sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr saying the report failed to “comply” with the law and slammed Mueller’s team for not exonerating Trump on obstruction, arguing it was a “political” decision.
Although Trump says he has been vindicated, Democrats argue Mueller’s refusal to clear Trump on obstruction provides them a road map to continue to investigate and possibly seek impeachment. Barr said he and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined there was not sufficient evidence to establish a crime had occurred.
Mueller announced his resignation last week in a public address.
