According to Politico, Donald Trump’s lawyers are about to roll the dice.
In what could end up being either a good move or an outright disastrous decision, the President’s attorneys are set to propose an interview between Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. “If Mueller doesn’t request an interview by Thanksgiving, Trump’s lawyers may even force the issue by volunteering Trump’s time,” Politico writes, in a piece out this morning.
The idea here is to convey to the public that Trump has nothing to hide and, secondarily, to perhaps help speed the process in order to remove a cloud from the administration. “Trump would be the first president since Bill Clinton to face questions under oath from a federal prosecutor,” Politico adds.
The risk here is obvious. For one thing, Trump does have something to hide, even if he doesn’t fully understand it and as more than a few legal experts have suggested over the past few months, it is by no means clear that his lawyers fully comprehend what it is they’re up against in Mueller’s investigation. But beyond that, there is no way to “prep” Donald Trump for an interview with Robert Mueller. This is a man who doesn’t even understand why he shouldn’t be tweeting about nuclear war in the middle of the night. If his attorneys think they can trust him to sit through an entire interview with Robert Mueller without flying off the handle or, at the very least, accidentally incriminating himself, they don’t know much about their client.
“A meeting with Mueller could bring serious risks for Trump–exposing him to questions about everything from potential obstruction of justice over his firing of FBI Director James Comey to what Trump might know about Kremlin support for his presidential campaign,” Politico notes, underscoring how precarious this would be for a President whose temper is so short that he can’t even suffer a perceived slight from Steph Curry.
To be clear, there is no question that Mueller can force Trump to be interviewed. It’s just a chess game in terms of each side deciding on the timing. For his part, Robert Bennett – who Politico reminds you helped lead Clinton’s high-powered outside legal team during the Lewinsky scandal – thinks it would be a mistake for Trump’s lawyers to suggest the interview. “The wise thing to do is delay it as long as humanly possible to see what other things fall out,” he said.
According to Politico’s piece, Mueller has already started interviewing Trump’s White House aides.
At least one expert thinks Mueller should avoid interviewing Trump simply because there’s no telling what he might do. “It would be an understatement to say this president is unpredictable and if you can make a case without his testimony I believe you would do that,” Katy Harriger, a Wake Forest University constitutional law professor who has written a book about special prosecutors says.
On the bright side, Trump has a lot of experience when it comes to being in legal trouble. At last count, he’s been involved in 4,095 federal and state lawsuits. So you know, maybe practice makes perfect.
In the end, it seems highly unlikely that any interview between Trump and Mueller would go well for this President. Surely his attorneys realize that. It’s probably fair to say that offering the President’s time is more of a desperation move than it is a preemptive gambit. Or maybe not, consider one final excerpt from Politico:
All of the key decisions on Trump’s potential interaction with Mueller will come from the president himself and his personal lawyer, John Dowd, who declined to comment for this story.
In other words: when it comes right down to it, Trump is effectively representing himself in these proceedings. Good luck with that, Mr. President.
Trump’s lawyers are playing a game. It’s silly stuff. Mueller or whoever will examine Trump will not do so until he or she is good and ready to examine him. And when it’s time, Trump will sit down exactly in that place that’s ultimately chosen by Mueller no matter how it ultimately looks to the public. If Mueller wants him in the Grand Jury, that’s where it will take place. If it’s in a videotaped deposition setting, that’ll do. Bottom line, Mueller picks the time, place and method of recordation and to the extent that it appears like a compromise it’s because he wanted it that way.
In times past Trump controlled most depositions he was involved in. Most cases were commercial or domestic cases where he ran roughshod over the lawyers many of whom, from what the public record discloses, were not hardened and seasoned trial lawyers and where the adverse party was some poor bastard who was losing money by the hour. Here the adverse party is the US with unlimited funds in this context, where the rules of court favor the government against an out of control recalcitrant witness, and where if Trump spends hours evading and not responding to any substantive question with lies such as “I can’t recall,”or “I can’t remember,” he’ll walk himself into perjury charges. No matter what strategy Trump adopts to evade speaking the truth when the unforeseeable questions come his way, he’ll screw it up, given he has no earthly idea what information Mueller has and because Trump is literally mentally ill and cannot go the distance with details and cannot see beyond the present moment.
Being examined under oath in a grand jury criminal investigation is
not the same as being a party to a Twitter war.
re “… Trump is effectively representing himself in these proceedings. …” as any lawyer will tell you: “anyoneone who represents themselves has a fool for a client”…….
Then obviously he has an impossible job ahead of him since there appears to be more than 10 Trump personalities vying for control, each crazier than the other.
These few snippets (and more) are taken from the article above; as I read the thing, I had a vision of how to get the most and the quickest method to get it all:
“roll the dice
to perhaps help speed the process
The risk here is obvious
trust him to sit through an entire interview – without flying off the handle
how precarious this would be for a President whose temper is so short that he can’t even suffer a perceived slight – each side deciding on the timing
exposing him to everything – how precarious this would be – no telling what he might do
is effectively representing himself – delay it as long as humanly possible – Good luck with that”
The original founders of our country had an excellent quick method of extracting information. The subject of the interview would lay on the ground, spread eagle – legs and arms tied to 4 stakes in the ground. Drizzle honey from the top of his orange head to his tiny fingers and down his plump body and fat ass, down each drumstick and over his baby feet. Dump a pile of fire ants nearby and wait. In no time flat you will have answers to every question you ask!
“not the same as being a party to a Twitter war” 🙂
As I reflected further on his testimony, it occurred to me that the best place from Mueller’s point of view to take Trump’s testimony would be in the grand jury room. Why is that? For one thing his counsel will not be present. For another, there’d be an audience for him to pander to and for him to perform for. That’s how his hugggge ego would handle it. It’s the worst case scenario for him since he’s less likely to say I don’t remember or I don’t recall 635 times in a row fearing it’ll make him appear like a fucking moron or stupid or reveal he does not have theeeeee “best memory” as he claims. In the grand jury room, he’d be more likely to make shit up as he does from day to day. Fact is that he has a terrible memory contrary to his own belief and he fills the space in most narratives with others by simply fabricating facts. Not a wise idea under these circumstances.
It’s the coverup stupid.
The President needs to exhume Roy Cohn and see if there’s any life left. He would have never let Trump enter such a one sided deposition with criminal implications.. Depositions are land mines for someone in Trump’s position..any subject is fair game and any kind of question.Typical and common objections occur in Court proceedings where Judges rule..not depositions.
Mueller has a team to prepare questions and side alleys…and they have a huge ego dart board to
score on.