Yuri Gripas/Reuters
President Trump reportedly asked lawyers representing him in the Russia investigation for advice on how to proceed in Syria ahead of Friday’s airstrikes. White House sources cited by The Wall Street Journal say the president spent much of the past week surveying aides and staffers on how to respond to a suspected chemical attack that killed dozens in Douma last week. It was not immediately clear which members of his legal team he consulted or whether their advice played any role in his decision to launch airstrikes late Friday. But Trump is said to have spent “20-hours-a-day” obsessing over his Syria response, at times growing impatient with military officials as he pushed for a large-scale military response. While Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called for a more cautious approach that would not risk escalating the situation with Russia, Trump was encouraged by John Bolton, his new national security adviser, to launch a “ruinous” attack, according to a source cited in the report.