Posted on 05/02/2018 10:46:40 AM PDT by sickoflibs
The leak of a list of questions Mueller wants to ask President Trump is a sign that Mueller’s seemingly never-ending investigation in search of a crime may be getting close to a conclusion. One would think that before interviewing Trump, Mueller would have interviewed everyone else relevant to the case and is now trying to show discrepancies between Trump’s amazingly elastic memory and the memory of others in order to give his leftwing fan club the joy of claiming “obstruction.”
Yesterday, the Washington Post ran an anonymously sourced story claiming that Mueller had threatened Trump with a subpoena if he refused to submit to a “voluntary” interview.
In a tense meeting in early March with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, President Trump’s lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
But Mueller responded that he had another option if Trump declined: He could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, according to four people familiar with the encounter.
Mueller’s warning — the first time he is known to have mentioned a possible subpoena to Trump’s legal team — spurred a sharp retort from John Dowd, then the president’s lead lawyer.
“This isn’t some game,” Dowd said, according to two people with knowledge of his comments. “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”
Will Trump agree to go along with an interview? I’d say the odds are quite a bit less than 50-50. It is widely reported that Trump is still incensed over Mueller using the Southern District of New York US attorney’s office as a stalking horse to get him access to Michael Cohen’s communications with Trump. (Let’s not fool ourselves here and think Cohen was subjected to a no-notice raid of his home, office, and residence because of some bullsh** back tax due on taxi medallions or any other financial wizardry he may have been involved in.) And this tweet by Trump is probably a solid indication of the direction he’s going in part because he’s pissed at Mueller and in part because he’s read the polls and thinks a fight with Mueller will be politically profitable.
It is also an open question whether Mueller even has that authority. Department of Justice regulations say that a sitting president can’t be indicted. So if Trump just refused to comply with the subpoena, Mueller would have damned little recourse. Trump might even think the blatant defiance was a win…and he might be right.
And Mueller is not a special counsel in the mold of Ken Starr. He’s a temp employee of the Department of Justice. He’s supervised (hahaha) by Rod Rosenstein who would certainly have to sign off on anything as extraordinary as a subpoena issued to the President. If Rosenstein did that, his tenure could be measured in nanoseconds.
More to the point, if the leaked questions are in any way accurate, they are simply inappropriate. There is no reason on earth why any president should have to explain to anyone his rationale for firing people or for his policy preferences or reveal his feeling about particular people. That is just fodder for leaks.
Mueller may get his interview, but you can bet it probably will not be a multi-hour, under oath session.
Why?
Trump is the President, Mueller is a Justice Department contract employee. He works for Trump. Mueller has no authority over the President.
Mueller should never have been appointed to begin with. What he is investigating is not a crime.
If Trump’s lawyers were worth their salt they would be howling about the constitutionally unsupportable special counsel position and helping Trump to make a constitutional argument to the public against Mueller until it was safe for TRUMP to fire Mueller.
Calling Rudy Guilanti, we have a clean up in aisle 4....
Definition of coup d’état
a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group
Subpoena’s can be challenged. Especially one that forces someone to talk. If a challenge occurs, then Mueller has to show his hand and prove to the court, what crime was committed, what he wants and why interviewing the President of the United States gets him that information. Basically, he’ll be forced to show his hand. If he’s holding a 2,5,6,8,9, in four different suits, he’s screwed. And, this thing goes away. And he looks like a bigger corrupt, idiot than he already does.
The President is dealing with the Korean Peninsula, the Iran deal, the caravan on our southern border, etc and Mueller is harassing him with this garbage? He should be ashamed.
He is trying to get Trump to fire him. Don’t fall for it Donald.
Mueller is playing to his far left Marxist cronies. Watch his body language.. he is a pompous ass if there ever was one. Thinks the Deep State has authority over the POTUS? He can’t indict a sitting president.. he would be creating an actual constitutional crisis. President Trump will WIN this.. He has the constitution and God on his side.
He should be fired.
I think this all a charade and connected to Syria, “chemical weapons” and Iran. The “Deep State has met its match in connivery.
Sometimes I think Trump is playing with Mueller like an experienced angler.
no interview fire him today, restore the rule of law, they work for you and if the country goes nuts who gives a rats butt already is, way past doing things the old way, time to fire and rehire..waiting for a subpeona..no thanks you’re fired and I don’t care...along those lines
If Trump’s lawyers were worth their salt they would be howling about the constitutionally unsupportable special counsel position and helping Trump to make a constitutional argument to the public against Mueller until it was safe for Trump to fire Mueller.
Trump is a smart guy but he needs to be coached by the right legal counsels that the CONSTITUTION OVERRIDES unconstitutional federal law and unconstitutional court decisions.
yea we cannot play the coup usurpers game and win, all of them today, let them go nuts, we will legally stomp them into the dirt..indict all of those crooks, get sessions in there too for covering for rosentincle
“Sometimes I think Trump is playing with Mueller like an experienced angler.”
I’m certain of it.
If Trump’s lawyers were worth their salt they would be howling about the constitutionally unsupportable special counsel position and helping Trump to make a constitutional argument to the public against Mueller until it was safe for Trump to fire Mueller.
Trump is a smart guy but he needs to be coached by the right legal counsels that the CONSTITUTION OVERRIDES unconstitutional federal law and unconstitutional court decisions.
He may issue a subpoena knowing Trump will ignore it. Then he can issue a report saying Trump not agreeing to an interview impeded his investigation and that is obstruction of Justice.
Agreed! Oh man how I agree. It seems only the President has been aggressive and tough in this fight while even his attorneys have been milquetoast. I say go for the jugular against Mueller and that cabal of conspirators.
It’s time for Sessions to step up or resign
Bring it on alternate President Musller. He certainly is acting as though he is equal to or above President Trump.
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