Donald Trump announces special counsel Emmet Flood’s exit following conclusion of Mueller report investigation

Washington: US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that a member of his legal team, Emmet Flood, will leave his post later this month after helping him handle the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign. “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 on Twitter.

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

Trump has been restructuring his legal team as he shifts from dealing with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe to battling Democratic-led investigations in the US Congress. Flood, an experienced Washington lawyer, holds the job of special counsel to the president. Flood and Pat Cipollone, who holds the post of White House counsel, represent the presidency as an institution, not Trump as an individual. Mueller concluded that Russia repeatedly interfered in the 2016 election and that Trump’s campaign had multiple contacts with Russian officials, but he did not establish that there was a criminal conspiracy with Moscow to win the White House. Mueller’s report declined to make a judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, although it outlined instances in which Trump tried to have Mueller fired or otherwise impede the investigation.