President's lawyers may offer Mueller an interview with Trump

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Donald Trump’s lawyers are open to having the president sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller, according to a senior White House official, as part of a wider posture of cooperation with the special counsel’s Russia probe.

If Mueller doesn’t request an interview by Thanksgiving, Trump’s lawyers may even force the issue by volunteering Trump’s time, the official said. The White House believes such an interview could help Mueller wrap up the probe faster and dispel the cloud of suspicion over Trump.

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.

But the official suggested that the White House has no reason to stonewall Mueller.

“Whatever happens with regard to whether or not, or how, the special counsel might want to interview the president, there’s no reason to expect that would be combative,” the senior White House official explained. 

Trump told reporters this spring that he was “100 percent” willing to testify under oath about alleged Russian ties to his campaign. But even if he has nothing to hide, Trump’s unpredictable nature and willingness to bend the facts poses headaches for his legal team as it strategizes for a possible sit-down with Mueller. One angry or untrue statement could have devastating political and legal consequences for the president.

Trump would be the first president since Bill Clinton to face questions under oath from a federal prosecutor. In August 1998, Clinton famously sat for four hours of testimony as part of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

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Republicans made Clinton’s arguments during the sworn testimony—over the definition of “sexual relations” and the meaning of the word “is”— central to his impeachment by the GOP-led House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Congressional Republicans later publicly released complete video of the testimony.

There’s little dispute over Mueller’s power to interview Trump in connection with his probe into Russian interference into the 2016 election. Every president since Watergate except Barack Obama has been directly involved in a federal criminal investigation while serving in office. All but George H.W. Bush agreed to submit to questioning.

“You can say, ‘I’m busy. I’m fighting World War III. I can’t talk to you right now.’ But you can’t just say because I’m president of the United States you have to wait until I’m out of office,” said Solomon Wisenberg, a deputy to Starr who participated in the grand jury questioning of Clinton in 1998. “If they want his testimony, he’s going to have to testify.”

Wisenberg said that, should Trump resist meeting with Mueller, he would trigger a Constitutional clash that the prosecutor is likely to win, based on Supreme Court rulings. Short of that, the only way Trump could avoid answering questions would be to assert executive or attorney-client privilege, or to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against possible self-incrimination.

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 initially declined to comment for this story. In an email after this article published, Dowd said, “Totally false!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” but declined to specify what he was referring to.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/12/trump-mueller-meeting-russia-243692

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Will they meet at a steakhouse?

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/18/politics/ty-cobb-donald-mcgahn-white-house-lawyers-new-york-times/index.html

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http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lawyer-ty-cobb-comey-letter-2017-9

 

only the best. Is Natasha Bertrand on drugs? Is Cobb an alcoholic fool? Reality WH!

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

so much bait in the water and so few fish