Government

There Is One Legal Out For Don Jr. And He Might Be Too Dumb To Take It

Meanwhile, Republicans eat each other over the concept of following the law.

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Donald Trump Jr. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., the president’s adult son, to testify before the committee. Yes, Don Jr. is being called by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence committee chaired by Richard Burr, not the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Democrat Adam Schiff. The subpoena was issued weeks ago, after Don Jr. resisted testifying for a second time, before the redacted Mueller report was made public.

President Trump is tweeting that the Mueller report “exonerates” Don Jr., but it does nothing of the sort. Instead, the Mueller investigation failed to even bring Don Jr. in for questioning, essentially determining that he was too dumb to commit any crimes without even asking him about it.

Don Jr. has already testified in front of the Senate, and the House back when Republicans controlled that body. But since then, it looks like Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has contradicted some of Don Jr.’s testimony, and brought up new questions for Donny. Even the softball investigation being conducted by friendly Senate Republicans would be incomplete without giving Don Jr. an opportunity to defend himself and refute Cohen’s testimony.

I read the move by Burr as trying to help Don Jr. and the Trump family. There’s no way the GOP Senate is going to contradict Mueller or recommend charges against Don Jr. when Mueller did not. Don Jr. just has to go in, tell the truth, or at least not demonstrably lie, and Burr and the other Republicans will do the rest of the work for him. This is a layup.

Of course, most of the Republican party is freaking out. I assume this is because they know Trump and his family are compromised as hell and fear any additional scrutiny about the family’s actions. The GOP knows that “testifying without lying” is a thing these people seem genetically unable to do, so they’re all rallying around the “case closed” line surfaced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week.

CNN reports that Don Jr. is considering just ignoring the subpoena. I point that out just to mention that somehow ignoring Congressional subpoenas without any legal argument to do so is now considered “one option among many” by Trump and the Republicans. That party is now run by mendacious and lawless people.

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If Don Jr. doesn’t want to testify, he shouldn’t take the lawless action of ignoring a Congressional subpoena, nor should he take the lawless action of perjuring himself in front of Congress. He should take the Fifth Amendment. He should avail himself of his right against self-incrimination. I know this is a strange way to put it, but taking the Fifth is what LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE DO when faced with Don Jr.’s dilemma.

If Don Jr. goes to jail, it’s likely going to be for financial crimes in the Southern District of New York. The person who might have the goods on him is Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. It’s unlikely that he will be charged for criminal conspiracy with a foreign government by Trump butler and U.S. Attorney General William Barr. The ONLY WAY he can mess himself up in connection with Russia is if he lies to Congress about it. Testifying truthfully should be easy, and if it’s not, then taking the Fifth should be easy.

Will there be political fallout if the president’s son invokes his right against self-incrimination? Maybe. I happen to believe that both sides are baked in on the issue of whether or not the Trump’s are a crime family, but I suppose there are some low-information voters who will be dragged away from their coffee to talk about their shifting views on television.

But I simply cannot accept living in a world where the political fallout from accessing a legal right guaranteed by the Constitution is worse than simply ignore the law altogether. I mean goddamn. The Fifth Amendment is part of the law, and ignoring subpoenas is a flagrant disregard of the rule of law.

The GOP Senate is not trying to hurt Don Jr. Could this freaking family get through one entire week without screwing up the institutional structure of the country? Take the freaking 5th, Donny boy. It’s better than all of your other options.

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Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas Donald Trump Jr. [CNN]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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