Government

Don't Get It Twisted: Trump Team Is Trying To AVOID Trump Talking To Mueller, They're Looking For Any Way Out

Trump cannot hold up for multiple hours under tough questioning, and EVERYBODY KNOWS IT.

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Robert S. Mueller (via YouTube)

NBC News is reporting that Trump lawyers are in preliminary but ongoing conversations with Robert Mueller and his investigators about a possible interview with President Donald Trump. From NBC:

Anticipating that special counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview President Donald Trump, the president’s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format, including written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sit-down, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers for Trump have been discussing with FBI investigators a possible interview by the special counsel with the president as part of the inquiry into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election…

In addition to the possibility of suggesting the president submit written responses in place of an interview, a second person familiar with the president’s legal strategy said another possibility being contemplated was an affidavit signed by the president affirming he was innocent of any wrongdoing and denying any collusion. It was not clear what such an affidavit might state regarding the president’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 at a time when Comey was leading the Russia probe.

Folks, there is NO CHANCE Mueller is going to accept written responses or a blanket affidavit of innocence. I imagine the Trump legal team is putting this story out there in an attempt to show that the president is “cooperating” with the investigation. But trying to avoid a formal interview is the opposite of cooperating. He’s trying to avoid the investigation, and I can’t imagine this gambit will work.

Remember folks, Mueller could just subpoena Trump to testify in front of the grand jury. At that point, Trump’s options would be to simply take the fifth, or hide behind some theory of executive privilege. Both options look very bad for the President, so his legal team wants to avoid that.

But, more than anything, they want to avoid putting Trump in a room with F.B.I.-level investigators for multiple hours on the record. Dear God, they want to avoid that. That is the worst of all possible outcomes for them.

Why? Because their client, the President of the United States, cannot string two sentences together without lying. Because the President does not have the mental STAMINA to sit in a room for hours and hours giving careful answers to detailed questions. Because it’s easier to get under Trump’s skin that it was to get under Colonel Nathan Jessup’s skin.

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At the point where Trump has to sit in a room for four hours (remember, Bill Clinton’s deposition lasted about four grueling hours), it’s GAME, SET, MATCH. Over the course of four hours, Trump will not be able to help himself from lying. He will not be able to help himself from exaggerating. HE IS INCAPABLE OF GIVING GOOD ANSWERS IN A DEPOSITION SETTING.

And any lawyer who has had a client like Trump knows that the worst thing is that Trump doesn’t know he is very bad at giving good answers to legal questions. They can tell him that he’s supposed to take the Fifth. They can tell him that he’s not supposed to answer any question he doesn’t want to. But, again over four freaking hours, there is NO CHANCE Trump will lock in for that long. He got VISIBLY TIRED debating Hillary Clinton on television. The other big Trump scoop today is Axios reporting that his presidential schedule is shrinking because, evidently, he just doesn’t have the mental energy of other past presidents. Trump wouldn’t last four hours being questioned BY ME. He’d break in front of trained professionals who already know more about his life than he does.

For Trump’s lawyers, their only goal in life should be to keep Trump out of that room. I don’t think Mueller would go for it, but they HAVE TO try. Everybody in the entire damn country knows that Trump will HARM himself if he has to actually talk to Robert Mueller for a few hours.

Initial talks underway about Trump interview in Mueller Russia probe [NBC News]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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