Trump Lawyer to Reporter: ‘Are You on Drugs?’
White House special counsel Ty Cobb exchanged a lengthy series of emails with a reporter this weekend in which he called the press “rabid” and asked of the reporter, “Are you on drugs?”
Business Insider reported the exchange between Cobb, who represents President Trump in the ongoing Russia election meddling investigation, and the outlet’s reporter Natasha Bertrand.
In which the president's lawyer writes me at 1:30 am on a Saturday and asks me if I'm on drugs. pic.twitter.com/SPGTkMylM5
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) September 3, 2017
Cobb reportedly emailed the publication to complain about a story written about White House counsel Don McGahn and Trump. The story reported an early draft of a letter detailing Trump’s reasoning for firing FBI Director James Comey. The letter was recently provided to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Cobb ripped the story, calling it “exaggerated and/or fictionalized” in a lengthy email.
“Rabid though the press may be on the issue, the original memorandum of the president’s thoughts in letter form, the related Department of Justice analysis (which was first initiated before the President independently memorialized his thoughts), the subsequent conclusions of the Department of Justice, and the ultimate summary of each in the final termination letter are quite consistent and focus on the former director’s usurpation of powers and other erratic and inexplicable conduct,” Cobb wrote, according to Business Insider.
Bertrand then responded to Cobb, asking why Trump didn’t send the original letter draft to Comey.
“Are you on drugs? Have you read anything else on this???” Cobb replied.
The original draft of the letter, written by Trump and adviser Stephen Miller, reportedly complained that Comey wouldn’t publicly say that Trump was not personally under investigation in the ongoing Russia probe.
Trump fired Comey in May with a shorter letter that cited the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, that Comey be terminated over his handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State.
Cobb was named as White House special counsel to oversee the Russia investigation in July.
[The Hill]