Day 500: Trump’s lawyers make damning, Nixonian argument in memo to Mueller
Donald Trump has gone full Richard Nixon. Again.
Just a couple weeks after his election victory, Trump proclaimed that it would be impossible for a sitting president to have conflicts of interest. It echoed Nixon’s infamous, “When the President does something, that means that it is not illegal” line in his interview with David Frost.
Now, Trump’s lawyers are using the same argument as it relates to potential obstruction of justice charges and Trump. According to a bombshell report from The New York Times, Trump’s lawyers are increasingly desperate to stop special counsel Robert Mueller from obtaining a subpoena and forcing Trump to answer questions under oath. They worry Trump’s exposure in such an arena will only increase the chances of charges being brought or recommended.
They’ve written lengthy memos to Mueller’s office, including a 20-page missive boldly arguing that it’s impossible for Trump to have committed obstruction, in essence, because the Constitution gives him the power to do whatever he wants as it relates to investigations.
President Trump’s lawyers have for months quietly waged a campaign to keep the special counsel from trying to force him to answer questions in the investigation into whether he obstructed justice, asserting that he cannot be compelled to testify and arguing in a confidential letter that he could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations.
In a brash assertion of presidential power, the 20-page letter — sent to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and obtained by The New York Times — contends that the president cannot illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia’s election meddling because the Constitution empowers him to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”
They also contended that nothing Mr. Trump did violated obstruction-of-justice statutes, making both a technical parsing of what one such law covers and a broad constitutional argument that Congress cannot infringe on how he exercises his power to supervise the executive branch. Because of the authority the Constitution gives him, it is impossible for him to obstruct justice by shutting down a case or firing a subordinate, no matter his motivation, they said.Make no mistake: this is the Nixon defense. Trump’s lawyers argue that the Constitution gives the president broad authority and he can use that authority however he wants, even if that means shutting down investigations that involve him or his team.
It’s a damning admission and swift turn of the narrative from the months of Trump publicly decrying “witch hunt” and “no obstruction.” After the Times’ story, the factual issues surrounding Trump’s actions are largely set in stone and the arguments surrounding them are no longer that of wrongdoing, but rather that of justification. His team has given up on spinning facts about what happened, but rather attempting to give legal cover for what he did.
The memo also admits that Trump helped draft a statement after a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Russian nationals was revealed. For months, Trump’s team denied his involvement in helping craft a statement regarding a meeting for which his son offered numerous, shifting explanations.
Turns out, those denials were lies.
Trump didn’t actually deny any of the facts in the Times’ report or in his lawyers’ memo, instead blaming leaks.
Nixon tried blaming leakers too. Didn’t work out well for him.
500 days in, 962 to go
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