Ty Cobb, who represented the White House amid Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian election interference, called the special counsel an “American hero” in a recent interview.

“I think Bob Mueller’s an American hero. … Even though he came from an arguably privileged background, he has a backbone of steel,” Cobb said during an appearance on the ABC News podcast “The Investigation” this week. 

“He walked into a firefight in Vietnam to pull out one of his injured colleagues and was appropriately honored for that,” he continued. “I’ve known him for 30 years as a prosecutor and a friend. And I think the world of Bob Mueller. He is a very deliberate guy. But he’s also a class act and a very justice-oriented person.”

{mosads}Cobb, who began working with the Trump administration’s legal team six months into President Trump’s term, also said that he does not share the president’s view that the Russia investigation is a politically motivated hoax. 

“I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt,” he said.

Cobb added that he “was able to prevent the president from going on the attack against Mueller” during his time in the White House.

“It wasn’t really until Dowd sent out a critical tweet of Mueller and Rudy joined the team that the president felt unleashed,” he said, referring to John Dowd, a former veteran attorney on Trump’s legal team, and the president’s current personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Cobb also said he would clash with some of his other former White House colleagues at times over strategy, adding that he would advocate for more cooperation with the Russia probe, which led to the Trump administration sharing scores of documents with Mueller’s team.

“I was the one that advised it. But the president did make the decision,” Cobb said.

However, Cobb said differing strategies eventually divided Trump’s legal team into two sides as the White House counsel began to gravitate toward a more aggressive approach with hires like Dowd and Giuliani, prompting Cobb to leave the White House after 10 months.