Ty Cobb
A Kansan by birth, attorney Ty Cobb is not to be confused with the legendary baseball player of the same name. Though an accomplished high school athlete, it was an academic scholarship to Harvard that first brought him east. He later worked briefly on Capitol Hill and earned his law degree from Georgetown University.
Cobb began his legal career in the early 1980s as a federal prosecutor in Maryland, leading that district’s criminal division and was then at the Department of Justice (DOJ) managing major organized crime and drug cases on the East Coast. He later built a distinguished career at a major Washington, D.C. law firm.
President Trump tapped him to oversee the White House response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. Though he reported directly to Trump, Cobb did not serve as personal counsel; he represented the presidency as a constitutional office. A lifelong Republican until 2016, he nonetheless never voted for Trump. He served in the White House for a year. His insistence on avoiding a constitutional confrontation - by voluntarily producing documents and witnesses and refraining from attacks on Mueller - often put him at odds with both the President and his supporters.
At one point, Trump turned to him in frustration saying, “You’re no Roy Cohn.” Cobb replied, “Thank you, Mr. President.” Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s notoriously sinister aide, later mentored Trump, thereby imparting the “always attack, never apologize” playbook that defined McCarthy’s campaign against alleged communists in the 1950s.
Since leaving the White House, Cobb has become one of Trump’s most persistent critics. Drawing on firsthand experience, he has warned about the use of federal power for revenge and intimidation as well as attacks on democratic institutions and pressure on the judiciary. He has also expressed concern about Trump’s narcissism and cognitive decline.
Cobb has praised Mueller as an “American hero,” describing the investigation as legitimate rather than politically motivated despite his own concerns about the questionable political origins of the investigation itself. He has since returned to private practice, managing complex litigation and advising corporations, executives, and government officials.
“No one has ever seen corruption at this level by a President. Most of these actions have been pure exercises in power and greed and have no guiding principle beyond self-interest and vengeance. Competence, leadership, science, and the rule of law which historically distinguished us from petty dictatorships have all been abandoned or curtailed to serve his ego and narcissism.”
KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA – OCTOBER 22, 2025