White House lawyer dealing with Russian probe to retire

WASHINGTON, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Ty Cobb, the lawyer who has been representing the White House in the ongoing Russian probe, will retire at the end of May, a White House statement said Wednesday.

"For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The departure came as the Russian probe, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, is inching closer to the inner circles of the White House with the recent investigation against Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen.

Cohen, who began representing Trump before the campaign, saw his office raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has reportedly yielded documents that shed light on the information that was shared between Cohen and Trump.

As the investigation started to pry open Trump's inner circles, prospect of a direct interview with Trump came into clearer focus. Mueller's office on Monday released dozens of questions that it would like Trump to answer, and U.S. media also reported Tuesday that Mueller has brought up the idea of subpoenaing Trump for an interview.

The interview has been supported by Cobb, and for a while the White House signaled that it had not crossed out the possibility. But after the raid on Cohen's office, Trump's enthusiasm in directly talking to Mueller waned.

According to Sanders, veteran lawyer Emmet Flood, who has represented former U.S. President Bill Clinton during Congress' impeachment proceedings', will replace Cobb. Enditem