The veteran criminal defense attorney who headed President Donald Trump's legal team during a crucial stretch of the special counsel investigation believes the entire affair will end in silence from special counsel Robert Mueller, and called the massive two-year probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign "a terrible waste of time."

"I don't think there'll be a report," John Dowd told ABC News in a wide-ranging interview for the premiere episode of "The Investigation," a new podcast focused on the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. "I will be shocked if anything regarding the president is made public, other than 'We're done.'"

Dowd, 77, left his role as Trump's lead attorney last March over differing views about how cooperative to be with prosecutors. But after spending nearly a year guiding the president's legal strategy, he forged a close relationship with Trump and continues to speak with him about the Russia probe.

In one of his most in-depth interviews since departing Trump's legal team, he offered a view of the probe very much in line with that of the president -– namely, that it lacks merit.