President Donald Trump is signaling he wants to sit for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller despite his lawyers urging him he avoid doing so to protect himself.
Mueller’s Russia probe has gone on for months, and has already led to charges against two top Trump campaign associates as well as guilty pleas for lying to the FBI.
Trump’s lawyers are concerned that the president, who has a history of making false statements during depositions, could get tripped up going toe-to-toe with some of the nation’s most seasoned prosecutors
But Trump ‘thinks he can work this,’ a person familiar with his thinking told CNN. ‘He doesn’t realize how high the stakes are,’ said the person, cautioning against it.
I GOT THIS: President Trump believes he can sit for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, a close familiar with his thinking is saying
Describing the reality of an FBI interview, the source said: ‘You can’t get up and walk away. It’s not that easy.’
Trump has repeatedly railed against the Russia probe as a ‘witch hunt.’ But refusing to cooperate has its own political risks, and could imply guilt. Trump has repeatedly said there was ‘no collusion,’ while also denying any effort to obstruct justice.
As Mueller has made his way through Trump campaign aides and associates, he has used statutes against lying to government investigators to his advantage. Former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page, for example, pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a professor in London who had Kremlin contacts.
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci appeared to be arguing for transparency in an appearance Tuesday on CNN.
‘He’s basically saying that I’m wide open as a book. I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong and I’m willing to say so under oath,’ former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN’s Jake Tapper Tuesday. ‘So again, I still think that that is on the table.’
30 is the new 50: The Washington Post catalogued a 2007 deposition where under questioning by lawyers Trump made 30 false statements by the paper’s count, including misstating his ownership stake in a partnership
The New York Times reported that Trump’s lawyers are fearful that if the president submits to an interview and takes a wrong step, he could be charged with lying to investigators.
John Dowd, a seasoned Washington defense attorney who was hired last summer to represent Trump in the investigation, wants him to rebuff a Mueller interview request, according to the report.
Dowd believes the special counsel might be unwilling to subpoena the president and set off a showdown with the White House that Mueller could lose in court, reported The Times.
Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer whom Trump also brought on for Mueller’s investigation, has argued that the White House should do everything possible to cooperate with the investigation to show transparency
John Dowd, a seasoned Washington defense attorney who was hired last summer to represent Trump in the investigation, wants him to rebuff an interview request. Dowd believes the special counsel might be unwilling to subpoena the president
Marc Kasowitz, the president’s longtime personal attorney from New York has also concurred on this matter.
Both Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and a Trump campaign confidante, and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and an informal adviser to Trump, echoed that advice.
‘The idea of putting Trump in a room with five or six hardened, very clever lawyers, all of whom are trying to trick him and trap him, would be a very, very bad idea,’ Gingrich said last month on ‘Fox and Friends’.
Trump told reporters last month: ‘I’m looking forward to it, actually.’
White House lawyer Ty Cobb has been urging transparency and cooperation, and has provided repeated reassurances to Trump that the probe will end soon.
The Washington Post catalogued a 2007 deposition where under questioning by lawyers Trump made 30 false statements by the paper’s count.
Making false statements to FBI investigators can expose the president to criminal charges – although it would have to be settled in the courts whether he could be prosecuted for such a crime while in office.