Donald Trump’s highly competent legal team has a “tremendous” idea.
They want to try and use an interview with Trump as “leverage” to force Robert Mueller to wrap up the Russia probe.
As a reminder, Trump’s attorneys and confidants have been wary of allowing the President to sit for an interview with the special counsel because, just to be brutally honest, Trump is a moron, is prone to hyperbole, exaggeration, and in some cases, outright lying. That sets up the potential for him to accidentally commit a crime during the interview in addition to the crimes he’s being interviewed about, a comically ridiculous situation befitting of a comically ridiculous president.
We discussed that at length in “‘He’s A Killer’: Trump Associates Warn President Of ‘Suicide Mission’ In Mueller Interview.”
Still, the temptation for Trump to effectively insist on an interview may prove too much for a President that desperately wants to remove the Russia cloud from his administration amid upbeat economic data, progress on the foreign policy front and a legislative victory (the tax cuts).
Well on Friday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal is out with the following:
President Donald Trump’s lawyers are seeking to negotiate a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller that uses an interview with the president as leverage to spur a conclusion to the Russia investigation, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The president’s legal team is considering telling Mr. Mueller that Mr. Trump would agree to a sit-down interview based on multiple considerations, including that the special counsel commit to a date for concluding at least the Trump-related portion of the investigation. One idea is to suggest a deadline of 60 days from the date of the interview, the person said.
Another consideration for the legal team is reaching an agreement with Mr. Mueller on the scope of his questioning of the president, which they expect to focus largely on his decision to fire former national security adviser Mike Flynn and former FBI director James Comey, according to people familiar with the matter.
Obviously, all of that is absurd. For one thing, it doesn’t seem likely that Mueller would agree to put a sell-by date on his investigation in exchange for the “privilege” of interviewing the person he’s investigating.
But beyond that, this doesn’t in any way ameliorate the main problem here, which is simply that you cannot allow Donald Trump the “very stable genius” to sit for an interview with an experienced, aggressive, and highly motivated prosecutor because Trump will probably end up accidentally implicating himself.
That is all.
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Let get this right. Donald should never, ever give an interview Mueller, a prosectuor or an FBI agent, or testify before a grand jury. That should not be in the cards. There’s a simple path to ealk him away from it if his lawyers were shrewd enough, if his lawyers had an ounce of wisdom.
If Counselor Cobb had a good day with his client, he could explain to him that pleading the fifth amendment against self-incrimination would not be as bad as it sounds but instead the right thing to do. He could explain to Trump that the US Supreme Court had stated, on more than one occasion, that this personal constitutional right extends to every person in this country to include those who are innocent.That Trump may invoke this personal constitutional right while claiming his innocence, using the language of the unanimous Supreme Court opinion in OHIO v. MATTHEW REINER, (2001), where the Court stated:
“we have emphasized that one of the Fifth Amendment’s “basic functions … is to protect innocent men … ‘who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’ “ * * *. In Grunewald, we recognized that truthful responses of an innocent witness, as well as those of a wrongdoer, may provide the government with incriminating evidence from the speaker’s own mouth.”
Cobb could explain that he could, on behalf of Trump, explain to the public, that Trump has always said he did nothing wrong, there was no obstruction or collusion, that this is a witch hunt, and he beleives that they are attempting to frame him and he will not contribute to prosecutors efforts and therefore is taking advantage of his constitutional right to protect his innocence.
It’s quite simple.
NO Marty — I realize the lawyer in you is giving good reliable advice, in general. Any innocent man should follow it. BUT in this case we want him caught and charged! If he cannot afford a decent lawyer or the ones that expect to be paid for their services have all shied away and want no part of this guy! He deserves what he gets. Besides, he has shown more than once or twice that he will not follow prudent advice because he is either totally nutz or thinks he is so smart that he can handle it without anyone’s help. Pleeeeze let him hang!
And every day the pile of probable evidence against him just gets deeper! New stuff even today.
Murphy!! Don’t fret one bit. This guilty man should follow the advice! But will he? Since the game is afoot, let’s see if his Clarence Darrows can make this simple and obvious strategy work for a client obviously 100% out of control. Lover Boy is every trial lawyer’s worst nightmare, and if he decides not to testify it won’t be as a result of my kind of thinking. It will be out of utter terror and fear he feels given the consequences that will follow from testifying falsely. Although he’s been caught repeatedly lying during depositions in civil cases without consequence, he knows this is a wholly diffrerent playing field. Come on, Muprhy, break out the candy!
yeah, about that candy. I have now had to take my candy purchases to two other locations when my primary grocery supply people began noticing the volume I have removed from their store. So I spread the business to two other locations and now divide my take home between 3 places. It is working out well. And I make two trips when it is on sale buy one, get one or as we professionals call it, BOGO. Interesting how those sales coincide with the uptick in his cover-up efforts!
Thank the cosmic rays for excel!
Yes this is as crazy as if I were to read an article that states “Politicians lawyers attempt to end murder investigation”. Are we really seeing this? A president, breaking laws, and then trying to thwart the legal system. Dude, Trump is caught red-handed. This is all so stupid to me as I warned people that when I heard USA got caught infiltrating Russias internet system…that the retaliation would come during the election. I am by no means a government strategist, but I wonder if the ones we have are actually good being I predicted this to happen. Closest people to me response, “No, no, Russia would never get away with interfering in something so crucial as an election.” Well… Read and weep.