WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is adding to his growing roster of lawyers handling investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, NBC News confirmed Friday.
Veteran Washington lawyer Ty Cobb is the latest to join the president's legal team, a White House official said. Cobb will spearhead responses to media inquiries related to the ongoing Russia probes and he will work closely with attorney Marc Kasowitz, who is leading the Trump team.
Bloomberg first reported Cobb's hiring.
Cobb is a partner at Hogan Lovells, the same firm headed into a Supreme Court battle against the Trump administration on the president's controversial travel ban. (He is a relative of the hall-of-fame baseball player with the same name.)
The new hire comes at a time when a number of key figures — both inside and outside the White House — also have retained legal counsel.
RELATED: Ex-Russian counter-intelligence officer attended meeting with Trump Jr.
After reports this week revealed Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., held a meeting during the campaign with a Russian lawyer with the expectation of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton, lawyer Alan Futerfas was brought on to represent him.
Others have lawyered up, too, including White House Senior Adviser and son-in-law to the president, Jared Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort.
The National Law Journal reported Friday that Jamie Gorelick will no longer represent Kushner in the Russia investigation and that Abbe Lowell, a prominent criminal defense lawyer, will be Kushner's main counsel on those matters.
"Of course I am still part of Jared Kushner’s legal team," Gorelick said in a statement. "As we have stated, once Bob Mueller and three of our partners left the firm to form the Special Counsel's Office, we advised Jared to get independent legal advice on whether to continue with us as counsel. As a result of this process, Jared decided that Abbe would represent him in the Russia-related inquiries. We are currently helping Abbe’s team."
President Trump defended his son, calling the 39-year-old a "wonderful young man" during a press conference Thursday in Paris. "From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or research into your opponent," he said, standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron.
