President Donald Trump's former lawyer whined about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation on the eve of the public release of his findings.
Mueller's report was expected to be issued Thursday morning after Attorney General William Barr made redactions of classified materials, grand jury information and other sensitive matters, but former Trump lawyer John Dodd wrote off the 21-month investigation as unfair, reported The Daily Beast.
“I haven’t read it, but it’s just wholly unnecessary,” Dowd told the website. “You just don’t need it. It’s pure mischief.”
Dowd, who represented the president for nearly a year, has long called for the end of the investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and he said Mueller's report shouldn't exceed "five pages" -- and list nothing but a description of the special counsel's actions and list anyone he formally declined to prosecute.
“The trouble is, these special counsels inflate themselves, think they’re more important," Dowd said, "and they’re not, in the scheme of things, and it ruptures the system of justice and it’s not fair."
Barr's initial summary claimed the special counsel opted not to conclude whether Trump should be charged with obstruction of justice, and Dowd criticized that decision.
“To me, it’s a probe that’s tainted by politics and by hate, and I don’t like it,” Dowd said.
Ty Cobb, another former Trump personal lawyer, said he doesn't expect the 400-page report to contain any surprises, but he did concede Trump's foes would find something to use from the report to attack the president.
“It will not surprise me if people seize on otherwise inconsequential things to perpetuate whatever conspiracy theory they’re attached to,” Cobb said.
One defense lawyer who dealt with Mueller's team, but representing an unspecified client, told The Daily Beast that redacted grand jury material would seriously blunt the report's impact.
“I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that when the report is out, cable news and the Democrats will act like they are hearing for the first time things that have been public for 15 months associated with the Comey firing, the Flynn issue and the recusal,” that attorney said, “and they will somehow try to make Barr look like he was less than candid when in fact he previewed this in his first letter that Sunday night.”
Attorney Rudy Giuliani -- who remains on the Trump team, although his TV appearances have recently dwindled -- told The Daily Beast he wasn't too concerned about Mueller's report, but he complained it would probably make "snide comments" about the president.