White House now blames Trump attorney John Dowd for bonkers 'I had to fire General Flynn' tweet

In what could appear to be an effort to shield President Donald Trump from the legal exposure he may have incurred by tweeting about accusations against disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn, the White House is now claiming that attorney John Dowd authored the ill-advised social media message.

The Washington Post said in an update added to their story about the Twitter message -- which insisted that any actions undertaken by Flynn during the presidential transition were "lawful" -- that Trump's personal attorney Dowd posted in the first person on the president's Twitter account.

"UPDATE: The Post is now reporting that the tweet was authored by Trump's personal lawyer, John Dowd, according to two people familiar with the situation," said a note added some time after the article was published at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. "The fact that Dowd authored the tweet could limit its salience to the investigation, but the White House still hasn't publicly corrected anything."

Legal experts were aghast on Saturday when the message was posted, questioning whether Trump was intentionally trying to get himself charged with obstruction of justice.

However, as some observers noted, if Dowd actually authored the tweet in question, he used the improper conjugation of the verb "to plead" -- the kind of mistake a first-year law student learns not to make, let alone a seasoned attorney like Dowd.