White House lawyer Ty Cobb predicted Wednesday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential campaign would be over in the next four to six weeks.
Cobb made his prediction during an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett on the Takeout podcast.
That prediction is not Cobb’s first. In August, he predicted that the probe would be over by Thanksgiving, or by the end of 2017 at the latest: “I’d be embarrassed if this is still haunting the White House by Thanksgiving and worse if it’s still haunting him by year end.”
Last month, Cobb predicted that the probe would be over by early January — “shortly after the first of the year absent some unforeseen delay.”
Now, however, the Mueller probe seems destined to last much longer. Late Wednesday, news broke that Mueller had reached a deal with former Trump campaign CEO and White House adviser Steve Bannon to speak with investigators rather than appearing as a witness before a grand jury.
Cobb has reportedly advocated a strategy of cooperating with the Mueller probe, secure in the belief that there would be no actual evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
But critics have suggested that the White House has been too passive in the face of an investigation that has far exceeded its original purpose and that has been staffed by lawyers with evident anti-Trump, and pro-Hillary Clinton, biases.
The Washington Examiner notes that Cobb also told Garrett that the president was “very eager” to speak with Mueller.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.