Day 449: Trump No Longer Promising to Sit for Mueller Interview
Donald Trump has yelled over and over and over again that the Russia collusion investigation was a total witch hunt and that he couldn’t wait to clear his name. He promised to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller at the appropriate time.
Not so fast, according to his lawyers.
The FBI raid of the office of President Donald Trump’s attorney caused the President’s team to back off presenting a proposal they were preparing for special counsel Robert Mueller about an interview with the President, according to sources familiar with the matter. Trump’s legal team is now re-evaluating what, if any, interview the President should offer.
The raid happened at the same time Trump’s attorneys were meeting to get ready to make a proposal about his testimony to the special counsel.
News of the raid Monday blindsided Trump’s lawyers, who considered the move a “major breach of trust” that shattered the assumptions of good faith going into the negotiations, one source said. Another said it left them feeling “fundamentally misled.”
The lapse of trust could be insurmountable: The previous assumptions about wrapping up the investigation with a presidential interview about a finite number of topics no longer seem to be true, according to a source.
Defense lawyers are upset that prosecutors failed to disclose their entire strategy to them, as if there’s one thing that prosecutors care about, it’s trust between themselves and defendants.
Perhaps the raid was a good wake-up call for Trump celebrating the fact that his lawyers were told he’s merely a subject in the Russia investigation, as opposed to a direct target. Prosecutors can and do mislead. Courts have time and again held that they’re allowed to do so.
If Trump is truly innocent and Trump is unconcerned about the Mueller probe, then a raid on Michael Cohen’s office should have no effect on him sitting down for an interview. If the investigation is truly a farce, as Trump routinely claims, sitting down and answering some questions shouldn’t be a problem at all.
If Trump has committed any infraction whatsoever, however, sitting down for an interview would be a substantial risk that has the potential to bring even more heat on him.
449 days in, 1013 to go
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