that were already released today from the president's former criminal defense lawyer john dowd. bob woodward describes a rehearsal session with the president where john dowd pretended to be robert mueller asking the president questions. the "washington post" reports that in that rehearsal session donald trump's answers were "stumbles, contradictions, and lies until the prevent eventually lost his cool. this thing's a god damn hoax trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying i don't really want to testify." the book then describes a meeting john dowd with had robert mueller and mueller's deputy james quarles in which dowd explained why he didn't want the president to testify. "i'm not going o'sit there and let him look like an idiot and you public that transcript because everything leaks in washington and the guys overseas are going to say, i told you he was an idiot, i told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. what are we dealing with this idiot for?" after that meeting with robert mueller john dowd gave the president the following advice.