ty cobb is out. nd just in a source indicates that cobb had been clashing with the president over his combative tweets against bob mueller. the source also says that cobb made it clear on multiple occasions that he could not go down that path. this is all according to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta, who we'll talk to in just a second. according to other reports,

between emmet flood and ty cobb, do you think will be significant going forward here. >> sure. kelly hit all the right points as usual. i would just add a couple things. which is -- you know, cobb, his view was always, i'm here to represent the white house, and i'm here -- this is a government service job. i'm not here to represent the president of the united states. cobb was never a donald trump guy. you know, you look at his campaign donations over the years. he's given to democrats. he donated to barack obama. he donated to jeb bush. he backed jeb bush in the 2016 republican primaries. this, to him, was a service job, and kind of a fascinating legal job, and i think what -- i think what you've seen from a lot of these top-flight lawyers in town, maybe a reluctance to get involved as a personal lawyer for donald trump at this moment, whereas, taking a leave of absence from a top-flight law firm and then going to join the white house as, you know, as a member of the legal team at the white house, is different, and it has different baggage, has different challenges, and as kelly

ty cobb is out. and just in a source indicates that cobb had been clashing with the president over his combative tweets against bob mueller. the source also says that cobb made it clear on multiple occasions that he could not go down that path. this is all according to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta, who we'll talk to in just a second. according to other reports, emmitt flood will replace cobb. he represented president bill clinton during his impeachment process and former vice president dick cheney when he was sued by former cia officer valerie plame. to jim acosta with the scoop this hour, maybe everyone saying this was semi-expected, that was a bombshell you just broke. >> reporter: i think this is big, brooke. it indicates there are some big tensions inside the president's legal team, or at least there were as of a couple of hours ago. ty cobb departing the president's legal team. i'm told by a source familiar with ty cobb's departure that he had been clashing with the president f

but just a couple of hours before that story published, ty cobb gave a long freewheeling interview tocast in which he never mentioned his plans to retire later today. it didn't come up. in that podcast interview, mr. cobb said that president trump, sitting for an interview with robert mueller was not off the table. he said he has great respect for deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who oversees the mueller investigation. he called him a dedicated public servant. he also said he likes bob mueller and he thinks bob mueller is just doing his job. he did not sound like man who was to be quit. but apparently we should have seen this as a man who was about to be fired? >> i know bob and like and respect him. in my view, mueller is doing, you know, what he was assigned to do. i mean he didn't -- he didn't start the investigation. he got pulled in by rosenstein, and was given an assignment. you know, he had been working that. people can argue about whether or not there is a lot of sprawl. i understand those arguments, but at the same time, again, he didn't -- he didn't launch into this on

but ty cobb was saying i've been planning to retire.ly he was somewhat of a package deal with john dowd. this was done at a very different time in this investigation. he was brought on board at a very different time. he's had a -- sometimes friendly, sometimes not so friendly relationship with this president, as everyone who works for him has. but this signals to me that the president is getting advice to, you know, sharpen things up and fight. we should point out that he's had a hard time finding lawyers. but now, in the last really couple of weeks or so, has really lawyered up in a significant way. and they're being paid by the trump re-election campaign. it's a 20% of the -- of money he's raising is being spent on lawyers, at least it was in the second quarter of this year. so this is a sign that it's getting much more serious, and perhaps urgent to the president. >> you raise an important point, that part of the issue with the president's legal team has been their inability to hire lawyers. whether it is lawyers who work for big fir

counsel investigation. >> reporter: it could be the most ominous shake-up on the trump legal team yet, ty cobb who counseled the president for months to stob attacking -- to stop attacking robert mueller is out. cobb told cnn, i've done what i came to do in terms of managing the special counsel requests and i'm extremely grateful to the president and chief of staff john kelly for the opportunity to serve my country. but a source familiar with cobb's departure tells cnn the white house lawyer was uncomfortable with the president's tweets hammering mueller and wants no part of a mudslinging campaign making it clear he can't go down that path. replace cobb, attorney flood who joined a legal team that changed in recent weeks, adding rudy giuliani and losing cobb and john dowd. flood had worked on the legal team defending former president bill clinton against impeachment. >> it depends on upon what the meaning of the word is. >> reporter: democrats are pouncing on the latest chaos in trump world. >> nobody can stay around donald trump long who has a conscious and who has character and who believes

president trump's top lawyer ty cobb is out. replaced by wash veteran emmet flood, a sign the investigation could be changing. rudy giuliani, another addition to the trump legal team, telling "the washington post," jay sekulow felt he needed someone more aggressive, that is not a criticism of ty, but how we are going to do this. cobb joined the legal team last summer and took the lead in dealing with robert mueller. the white house said today that he's retiring. but a source close to cobb said he recently grew uncomfortable with the president's mueller tweets saying he didn't want to be part of a mudslinging campaign and flood, who is replacing cobb, representing then bill clinton during his impeachment process in the late 1990s and worked in george w. bush's administration and personally for dick cheney. all of this as cnn learned that the president's legal team is now preparing for a showdown with the special counsel, bracing for a possible legal fight after it was revealed that mueller raised the possibility of a presidential

i have nothing but respect for ty cobb. i enjoyed my brief interactions with him when i worked in the white house alongside him for a few months and i wish him well in his retirement. at the end of the day this is president making sure as he is going forward and we are getting more information coming out about where the special prosecutor may be going he has the right team in place. >> melissa: he has the right team in the right place at the right time. regardless of what you think of the latest choice it feels like it's been more of a revolving door. >> well, what i would tell you, though, as we get more information and as more information comes out including what john was reporting a few moments ago about possible subpoenas and possible tactics that may be pursued by the special counsel that you might need someone with a different background and a different expertise. obviously, mr. flood has extensive backgrounder -- background in dealing with the investigations, impeachment of president clinton and going to the george w

ty cobb is out. the north korea "time "the new york times" reporting his replacement will be emmitt flood. flood representing bill clinton during his impeachment trial during 1999. what's it tell us about the prospects for an interview between the president and special counsel robert mueller. and is mueller prepared to subpoena the president. and if he does that, how would the president. a former deputy assistant secretary for policy at the u.s. department of homeland security. danny cevallos is an msnbc legal analyst. marie ashavesti is a former lecturer at berkeley. paul, you've been through this from the special counsel side before. so mueller right now would like an interview with the president. we heard that maybe rudy giuliani's saying it is still not entirely impossible that would happen. the prospect apparently of a subpoena has been floated. if the president doesn't sit down. this move today to put emmitt flood in to this position on trump's legal team, what do you think that does for the pr

he will not have the same job, i'm told, that ty cobb had. job was essentially getting the documents all ready and handing them over to the special counsel. there's been some argument between, say, don mcgahn, the white house counsel, and ty cobb about whether cobb should have used the issue of executive privilege more than he did. so we may be hearing a little bit more about that. there's also some thought that maybe when mcgan leaves, that flood could move into that job of white house counsel. but right now, his job will be focused on the russia investigation. >> on march 11th, jeff, president trump flatly denied in a tweet that he was making any changes as far as his legal team is concerned. let me read to you his statement on march 11th. the president of the united states. the failing "new york times" purposefully wrote a false story stating that i am unhappy with my legal team on the russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out. wrong! i am very happy with my lawyers, john dowd, ty cobb, and jay sekulow, they are doing a gr

let's lay out for you what it was that ty cobb was doing. ty cobb was president trump's in-house attorney dealing with the mueller investigation. he wasn't dealing with the day-to-day legal issues at the white house. that is white house counsel don mcgan. but he played a significant role and a person who is advocating for the president to do a sit-down interview with the special counsel robert mueller. after some deliberation, ty cobb decided he would retire. i haven't had a chance to talk to him yet but he told me a while ago he was looking forward to going back home to south carolina. in a statement, sarah sanders saying, "for several weeks ty cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let chief of staff kelly know he would retire at the end of this month." he is going to be replaced by emmet flood. let's put up his c.v. or the prominent points of it. he clerked for justice antonin scalia and was president clinton's impeachment lawyer. represented dick cheney in the valerie plame case, among other things. you knew him then, h

ty cobb is gone.pen this up to the couch. >> the president is going in the swamp to fight the swamp. he realizes he has to have insiders to fight back against what bob mueller is tempting to do. he work for different sides. it's an indication that the strategy in the white house is turning and you're aligning the personnel to fit the strategy. from what others have mentioned, sounds like it's an more aggressive approach. >> and according to "the new york times," mr. flood is expected to take a more adversarial approach than mr. cobb. >> absolutely. that makes a lot of sense of where and when he's coming in. they also indicated -- he was the lead lawyer for the white house during george w. bush's term when seven attorneys general were dismissed. gives you an indication between that and his work on impeachment that he deals with the powers of the president and where they lie and that is the tact they're looking at, which goes a lot with a great editorial kim strassel wrote. >> he will be able to defend

we twin with ty cobb out.o fight fire with fire. telling the white house for the first time that if they won't have donald trump, the

ty cobb really since he joined the white house, and he's a lawyer inside the white house, he works in the white house every day, he has been trying to play the role of good cop. he has been trying to assist with all the white house staffers who are interviewed, all the documents that the special counsel's office was requesting for. . he has been sort of apprehensive about the president's increasing, you know -- his anger really boiling over often certainly privately and on twitter as well. so it's in one hand not a surprise at all that he is leaving. it was more of a surprise that the president decided to hire emmitt flood, whose name has been fleting ut. he is someone who worked inside the bush administration counsel's office, was involved in the clinton impeachment as well. so he's has so this is an aggressive posture here we're about to see certainly executing, brook. >> what about jeff switching girls. trump threatened to interfere with the department of justice. the justice department is refusing a request to turn over a memo detailing the scope of robert mueller's investigation.

emmett flood has the job that ty cobb did. that is a government employee who works in the white house, whose job is to protect presidency as an institution. what happens when something in the interest of donald trump but not in the interest of the presidency as institution, kelly resolves the dispute. non-lawyer -- should we surrender this documents or might surrender impair executive privilege and harm the presidency, make it difficult for a future president to resist prosecution. ashley: so many layers. let's get to the subpoena issue, if indeed that takes place and president is subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, what are his options? >> none. rudy giuliani -- ashley: no choice? >> rudy giuliani's boasts that interview will last two or three hours will be out the window because a grand jury could keep him two or three days or weeks if they wanted to. he doesn't have a lawyer in there. can't consult with anybody. can't take a break when he wants. the prosecutors and fbi agents and grand jurors themselves who are civ

what impact will ty cobb's resignation have? anthony: the official line is he is leaving to retire, maybe spend morewi tim his grandkids or something. what type of -- but it's high ty cobb has been preaching cooperation wi robert mueller's probe. he wants to turn over the documents and get this over with -- the reality is that this could represent a more adversarial apmuoach to robert ler's investigation. you read donald trump's tweet and sarah huckabee sanders described what flood is going to be doing, representing the president against the russia witch hunt. you cannot get much more adversarial than that. they presented evidence of russian involvement in the election. but ey are looking at this purely as they are out to get donald trump and we are going to push back. jane: and there are reports that mr. mueller himself could become more adversarial, trying to t bpoena mr. trump. how likely is it t. trump is going to have to sit down with him? anthony: it is a delicate dance and has been for months. both sides want this to reac

what do we know about ty cobb's departure? >> reporter: as you were setting up there, it sounds as though the trump legal team was getting on a war footing, taking on an aggressive posture and tone. according to the source familiar with his departure, i am told that ty cobb was not only happy with the tweets going after the special counsel mueller that he didn't want to be a part of a mudslinging campaign. it was a path he could not go down any farther. what you are seeing at this point is the beginning of the next stage which is go to war with the special counsel's office. we are also hearing rumblings that perhaps another member of the president's legal team may be out soon. dan mcgahn, we are hearing from a couple of sources saying that mcgahn is expected to leave the white house in a couple of months. mcgahn may be going back to the campaign this time for re-election. take somebody who has been involved with the president for months now, on all of these legal matters will be moving on. emit flood, as you said was coming in

so it's now official-- ty cobb is out. and you know shit must be brewing if a guy who looks like ty cobb is bailing. ( laughter ) like, do you know-- do you know what it takes to scare a guy who had cholera during the spanish-american war? ( laughter ) do you know what it takes to scare that person? i'm just saying, things are looking serious. and now-- this is interesting-- replace the monopoly man's nephew, trump-- trump has hired a new lawyer, emmet flood, a man who is best known for defending president clinton during his impeachment. yeah. i always feel like you can tell somebody did the thing when they want the lawyer for the guy who did the thing. ( laughter ) it's like, "i didn't kill nobody. but who was that o.j. lawyer again?" ( laughter ) but let's move on to education. you see over the past two months, teachers across the country have been protesting for better pay and better working conditions. >> arizona is facing a fifth day of teacher walkouts and school closures today. the strike has impacted nearly two-thi

the significance of ty cobb's quote retirement.t seems like a significant time for someone to retire who's been involved in the most significant case of his high profile career. >> when you have a very big case, what you don't want to do is have a constantly shifting stable of lawyers. there's a lot of factual catch up to get to. not just creating a relationship of strus and reliance and possibly listening to you with your client. also to just know the facts of the case and have relationships with the other lawyers in the case. it is good to have somebody there who has some expertise in high profile, political investigations. it's kind of too bad if the president's point of view. i think we should all want the president to have good capable counsel here no matter what we think of him. it's too bad he can't seem to keep a lawyer. >> this is a white house staff position. >> yes. >> according to this statement from the white house to the white house reporters, he, for several weeks has been discussing his retirement and let chief of s

we just got a statement from white house press secretary sarah sanders who says for several weeks ty cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let chief of staff

details behind departure of white house lawyer ty cobb and the man replacing him. a name you may remember from when he represented bill clinton. and unacceptable return on our investment. nikki haley following up on her promise to take names, slamming countries for not giving u.s. more support, what she says may happen now. and a frightenin frightening frh a southwest plane. >> the dow falling in last 4 of trading, ending day near session lows, below 24,000, nicole is on floor of the new york stock exchange. talk to me about the market. reporter: we saw late day selling, this as the dollar moves to highs of providing headwind to stock market, dollar showed strength, you saw verizon big la laggard,. and nasdaq was up about 1% yesterday. it pulled up. oil moved to upside, goal -- gold down. apple was a winner. looking at apple up 4.5%. facebook. look at facebook same time hearing cambridge analytica ands had parent filing bankruptcy. and snap dropped 20%. not seeing advertisers and user growth. the redesign hurt the company. back to you. melissa: thank you. david: a

wrong, i am very happy with my lawyers, john dowd, ty cobb and jay sekulow. so keeping them honest, and went on to say she knows nothing about. first of all, maggie haberman was right. the president said he was happy with his three lawyers. two of those three lawyers he was happy with are no longer his lawyers. as for the claim that haberman is not given access and knows nothing about the president, that is a refrain from the president. -- who i don't speak to and have nothing to do with. now, you can believe the president on that or you can believe your eye, oh look, it is maggie haberman and mr. trump, they go back many years. interviewed him many times has had countless scoops. and poses a photo. ongoing legal shakeup we white house. the jousting on whether president will sit down with mueller. and jim acosta joining us now with the latest. >> reporter: as you were setting up there, it sounds as though the trump legal team was getting on a war footing, taking on an aggressive posture and tone. according to the source familiar with his departure, i am told

you saw ty cobb a seconds ago. sarah huckabee sanders with a statement. emmet flood will represent the president and the administration against the russia witch hunt.

ty cobb is out and clinton impeachment lawyer emmet flood is in. one of the reporters who broke the news is here with us flood is in. one of the reporters who broke the news is here with us tonight. >>> also tonight, did rudy giuliani just do his client donald trump terrible damage on live television on fox news tonight as he announces trump paid cohen back the $130,000 given to stormy daniels? >>> plus, the changes still to come for this white house. nicolle wallace with us on her reporting what those moves signal and who could be the next to go. >>> and a man who was just questioned by the mueller investigation has emerged tonight with a vivid description of how mueller is operating. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets upped way onnderway on a b wednesday night. >>> it's one of those wednesdays. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 468 of the trump administration. we have breaking news that we're going to break down on several fronts for you tonight. we'll catch you up on all of them. we're going to begin wit

news confirmed that the white house later that ty cobb is leaving. he will no longer deal with the russia investigation. officially, he's retiring at the end of the month. there's more reporting to be done on this. in his place, emmett flood, an attorney that represented president bill clinton during his impeachment trial. emmett flood is expected to take a less cooperative approach with the special counsel. in another big development today, president trump is threatening to use his powers as commander-in-chief to get involved in the justice department. it's the second time in less than a week that president trump has said he may step in on justice department business. the president has not been she spic about what exactly he might do. on twitter this morning, president trump blasted what he called the justice department's rigged system. he tweeted there was no collusion, it's a hoax and there's no obstruction of

my understanding is ty cobb had been saying for some time he was going to retire. >> ty cobb has beennormously helpful. he certainly helped me with my orientation. we wouldn't be where we are today, in a very strong position, if it wasn't for him and john. john has been my friend and colleague for 35 years. i have nothing but the utmost respect for john dowd. he had the right instincts about this, which is, you are going to get him to testify over my dead body because you are trying to trap him. he had those instincts way back when it was harder to see those. so all that work didn't go for nothing. we got it all. jay has been the rock. he's been -- jay sekulow. he's been through this -- i coded could not do it without him. what i offer something unique. i'm a lawyer who knows the criminal justice system as well as anybody in america. i'm also a very good friend of donald trump. and i think i have the respect of mueller, the fbi, the justice department. >> sean: you showed. >> jeff sessions was my colleague. not just in the campaign but back in 1981, when he was u.s. attorney in alabam

ty cobb, the inside counsel here at the white house is out. emmet flood will be coming in at the beginning of june or so. that's flood there. you saw ty cobb a seconds ago. sarah huckabee sanders with a statement. emmet flood will represent the president and the administration against the russia witch hunt. ty cobb will be retiring at the end of the month. he's done a terrific job. emmet flood does have an amazing pedigree here in washington d.c. he's a partner in williams and connelly. he clerked for justice antonin scalia. he was president clinton's impeachment later. one of the team. he represented dick cheney lawsuit. he was in the white house office during the bush administration. very familiar here were the washington landscape. the president excited to have him on board. >> neil: thank you very much, john roberts. what does this mean, including the latest change in the legal team as well? could this be a sign that things are coming together for an investigation that could soon be end something let's ask tom dupree. what do you think? >>

rollins with us tonight. >>> our t top story, the attorny leading the president's legal team is out, ty cobb retiring. cobb is known for his nonconfrontational approach to the defense of the president. cobb has declared throughout that the white house has been fully cooperative with mueller despite the counsel's outrageous overreach. cobb being replaced by emmett flood, an attorney who represented president clinton during his impeachment proceedings. serve as as george w. bush's lead counsel and special counsel dealing with congressional investigations into the presidency. flood represented vice president dick cheney and clerked for justice antonin calea. trump hired former new york lawyer rudy giuliani taske. he outlined the conditions and profession spects of me interview with mueller. >> are they objective about the president's interview, meaning do they have an open mind to the fact he may be telling the truth and comey may be lying. if they have an open mind to that, then this is a -- something we would consider. if they don't, then given all of the irregularities in this investigation,

you have ty cobb leaving. he was prefecture cooperation with bob mueller. now -- he was preaching cooperation with bob mueller. now you have a veteran lawyer coming tid work i the white house. as carol said guiliani is on the outside working on the m. personal t who is leading the legal team and legal advice? julie: i think the legal team is operating as a legal team trying to advise the president t you have aresident who does not want to be advised particularly. you have a president who feels he knows the best and has been close to rudy guiliani. he felt that conversation he had with rudy guiliani was a strategy convers ion that was going to lead to something that would end up beingte a b message publicly on all of this than he was getting previously. part of the problem with the legal team has been that they have been telling the president for months and months or the previous lawyers had that, you know, we need to cooperate, give them documents, cooperate with interview requests, to get this behind you. this will clear the air. he has waitedornd waited t

ty cobb is out of the lineup, replaced by someone who defended bill clinton.s of millions of americans face severe weather threats. we take you to the air in search of the storms that spawn tornadoes. >> whoa! >> glor: a dozen sinkholes force evacuations in florida. the first police body cam video from the deadliest mass shooting in modern u.s. history. a texas teenager is in custody. the f.b.i. says he was plotting an isis-inspired attack. this is the "cbs evening news" with jeff glor. >> glor: this is our western edition. we are going to begin with that deadly plane crash in georgia. an air national guard c-130 cargo plane exploded in flames on a busy highway just after takeoff from savannah today. the crew of five and a small number of passengers were killed. mark strassmann is on the scene. wc reporter: the security camera video shows the wc-130 cargo plane bank left and nose dive behind a tree line. witnesses heard two booms-- first the crash, then, even louder, an explosion. o ey said the earth shook. >> holy... ( sirens ) >> reporter: roger best got to

ty cobb, john dowd, they are out. my understanding is ty cobb has been saying for some time he was going to retire. >> he has been enormously helpful, he helped me with my orientation. we wouldn't be where we are today which is in a very strong position if it wasn't for him and john. john has been my friend and colleague for 35 years, i have nothing but the utmost respect for john dowd. he had the right instinct about this which is you're going to get him to testify over my dead body because he's trying to trap him. he had the instinct to see that. all that work didn't go for nothing, we got it all. jay sekulow has been the rock. i couldn't do it without him. i offer something unique, i'm a lawyer who knows the criminal justice system as well as anybody in america. i'm also a very good friend of donald trump. and i think i have the respective mueller, the fbi, the justice department. jeff sessions was my colleague. not just in the campaign but it in 1981 would he was attorney in alabama. they note the decisions i'm go

ty cobb is out and in is emmet flood. pow powerhouse attorney.ked part of the clinton impeachment team. most feel this is about a real change in strategy. how might it change as we move forward? >> it certainly feels like this potentially is a new phase of the investigation. keep in mind a lot of attorney on whether or not mueller will get his interview with donald trump. the more we hear about the investigation and what they're doing with witnesses, it seems mueller is zeroing in on some things and he certainly already has indicted some folks. we don't know the next shoe to drop. as i mentioned, rudy was brought in and the new face of the trump legal team. i imagine we will go out and serve in that function. there were people brought emmet flood and the raskins. they could bring in firepower behind the scenes to sort through the complex legal decisions this team might have to be making in the next few weeks or months. >> tal kopan. a lot of material to go over from the hannity interview. thank you. >>> breaking news this morning. release of thre

ty cobb is out, and clinton impeachment lawyer emmet flood is in.e reporters who broke the news is here with us tonight. >>> also tonight, did rudy giuliani just do his client donald trump terrible damage on live television on fox news tonight as he announces trump paid cohen back the $130,000 given to stormy daniels? >>> plus, the changes still to come for this white house. nicolle wallace with us on her reporting what those moves signal and who could be the next to go. >>> and a man who was just questioned by the mueller investigation has emerged tonight with a vivid description of how mueller is operating. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a business iz wednesday night. >>> it's one of those wednesdays.

ty cobb, the president's counsel, being replaced by emmet flood. let's put up a statement from sarah huckabee sanders saying for several weeks, ty cobb has been discussing his retirement. last week he let chief of staff kelly know that he would retire at the end of the month. emmet flood clerked for justice antonin scalia. he was one of president clinton's impeachment lawyers. he represented dick cheney, advised bob mcdonald and was a member of the bush administration. sarah huckabee sanders saying emmet flood will represent the president and the administration against the russia witch hunt. i asked rudy guliani about it. he didn't have much to say about flood. he told "the washington post" that the president wanted somebody more aggressive than ty cobb. ty will be staying until the end of may and flood comes in. there's some talk that he could be a replacement for don mcgann. >> shepard: since we're talking about lawyers, former attorney, john dowd, you had a conversation with him as well. >> i did. he confirmed the early meetings in march when th

ty cobb and john dowd didn't want president to sit down with robert mueller.er does emmett flood and nobody in their right mind does. they have a very competent lawyer behind the scenes and a bunch of people like rudy giuliani were very good at muddying the waters and performing political attacks on an investigation. so you have a dual track strategy. discredit the investigation, make it partisan in the same way the democrats it with the bill clinton situation. and we will have the same thing again here. and their bet is that bob mueller will not issue a subpoena. that he won't have the guts because it will be a long drawn out legal process. even if he does, they will but their forces. >> he might not have cause to issue subpoenas. it's not about guts. >> why wouldn't he have the cause? there are a lot of questions. just take on obstruction of justice. what was in your mind when you did x? >> we are all talking about them as if they were mueller's questions. they were written by trump's legal team after a conversation with someone in mueller's office. it's an

to use the powers granted to the presidency and get involved ironically the lawyer stepping into ty cobb's place built his reputation defending someone donald trump despises and fled represented us president bill clinton during his impeachment proceedings can really help get al-jazeera at the white house or the newest member of donald trump's legal team rudy giuliani has revealed the u.s. president reimbursed his lawyer michael cohen for a one hundred thirty thousand dollars payment to a former adult actress the payment has raised questions over a possible breach of federal campaign finance laws the actress of the center of the payment stormy daniels is suing trump for defamation she says she had an affair with him in two thousand and six and the money was part of a nondisclosure agreement she now wants to break a high level u.s. delegation is in china for trade talks president donald trump wants to slap tariffs on billions of dollars worth of chinese exports to the u.s. including steel and alimony and treasury secretary steve menuhin and commerce secretary will ross are trying to hammer o

why is ty cobb leaving? >> it comes down to president trump.s is a major shift, judy, in the president'legal strategy. e wants to be more combative, talking to white house advisors tonight. he wants to have a team around him that counters robert mueller and the special counsel investigation, that moves away from ty cobb and his strategy of cooperation. with rudy giuliani, the former new york mayor in there, emmut flood, a veteran rawier known for taking a tough line on impeachment proceedings in federal investigations, just shows you where the presidentts wo go. >> woodruff: there's been a fair amount of shuffle ling. i've lost count on how many attorneys have come and gone on the president's various legal teams. does this reflect change or a different moment in this investigation? because, up untseil now, ied the president was content to follow this cperation strategy, but something changed. >> something dichange. y colleagues and i reported yesterday that, in early march, mueller threatened to subpoena president trump if he decided to decline

attorney ty cobb told cbs news' major garrett in january that the president is very eager to speak withhe special counsel. >> i think at the end of the day, it's pretty clear that on the collusion side of, you know, allegations, there is no quid pro quo between the trump campaign and russians. >> reporter: news of the retirement comes a day after one of the president's former lawyers told the "associated press" mueller raised the idea of a subpoena during a meeting in early march to force the president to testify under oath. in a tweet this morning, the president once again called the investigation a witch hunt, dismissing claims of collusion as a hoax, and obstruction of justice as a setup and trap. a subpoena has always been an option for the special counsel but to use one on a sitting president would be an extraordinary move. if mueller issued one, the president could fight it in court or invoke his fifth amendment right against self- incrimination. meanwhile, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who oversees mueller's investigation, pushed back against reports that republican law

it happens at time when ty cobb is exiting. we also saw that the president's personal outside lawyer john dowd left the team a while back. we have got a reconfiguration here, rudy giuliani is a propment voice for the president's personal affairs on the outside and john sekulow and the team they are building. on the inside we will have emmitt flood with the tenacious experience right down the alley of what the white house will need. at the same time we can perhaps discern a shift because we know that the m.o. for ty cobb had been to send a signal of cooperation to try to work with the mueller team and to hope that that would be a way to wrap things up more quickly and to the president's benefit and the white house's benefit. he is not the president's lawyer. he is a white house lawyer. he will be leaving at the end of this month. is this a shift in style as well? is it also a possibility that flood would come into this picture with a reconfigured team both inside and outside? that the time thing that drew him in. it is important

that is to me the biggest loss in all of this, ty cobb's mustache. >> will america survive?hope so. >> i don't know. we are going to need to get rolie fingers. >> he can grow one in its replacement. >> it's one of the greatest mustaches of all time. if it's wednesday a new legal team, and a new legal tactic for president trump. >>> tonight, subpoena talk and shakeups. is the president's political end game getting lost in the legal shuffle? >> i wouldn't suggest that i'm the sole voice of, you know, cooperation in the white house. >>> plus, the minority

[laughter] ty cobb's outs. he retires at the end of the month.hose changes come as former trump attorney john dowd reveals mueller's team raised the prospect of issuing a grand jury subpoena to compel the president to testify under oath oath if e doesn't sit down to talk. concerns about the probe. >> i know when you are in the middle of an investigation, you can lose some objectivity. are they objective about the presidents interview? do they have an open mind to the fact that he could be telling the truth and comey may be lying? if they have an open mind to that, then this is something we would consider. if they don't, then given all of the irregularities in the investigation, we would be foolish to have him be interviewed. >> jesse: here are some stipulations for an interview. >> what to you would be acceptable parameters for an interview? >> two hours. >> topics? >> questions in advance. relevant topics. meaning russia, which may not be relevant any longer. we want a commitment that they are going to decide before the end of the summer so we d