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Trumps Mueller Interview Endgame
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/trump-is-using-an-interview-offer-as-another-way-to-discredit-the-mueller-probe.htmlHe is using a negotiation as another way to discredit the investigation
Federal prosecutors, it is often said, enjoy enormous power advantages over suspects and defendants. There are, however, areas in which the balance of power runs the opposite way. One is the ability to use the media. Criminal suspects and their lawyers have unfettered access to the press, while professional standards and Department of Justice rules severely restrict prosecutors from talking about what they are doing, especially at the investigative stage.
This asymmetry is even greater when the subject of the investigation is President Donald Trump, whose every tweet and utterance draws instant international coverage, and the prosecutor is Robert Mueller, who operates in a political environment that demands irreproachable conduct from him.
As a result, there are really two Russia investigations. One is visible to the public, fueled by the media, and susceptible to the president’s messaging operation. Trump and his allies have been increasingly disciplined about discrediting this public-facing investigation. See, for example, the attempts to smear Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, whose involvement in the investigation has come under attack by the president and whose retirement was publicized on Monday. See, also, the recent and increasingly forceful attempts of House Republicans to target Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises Mueller’s probe. While the president and his allies have engaged in this pressure campaign, they have simultaneously insisted that the president has cooperated fully with the investigation and will continue to do so. In this version of events, Trump would “love to” do an interview with Mueller and “looks forward” to setting the record straight. Indeed, he would gladly testify under oath if given fair conditions.
The president, of course, is no ordinary witness. Among other things, he is at serious legal risk in this matter and may effectively be a target of Mueller’s. Department of Justice guidelines, and norms of criminal practice, hold that investigative targets should not be subpoenaed to testify unless doing so is essential to an inquiry.
This rule, together with the president’s extraordinary job responsibilities, gives Trump’s lawyers the ability to force Mueller to deal with their demands. And they are presumably steep: no oath, no recording or transcript, only certain people in the room, unworkable time limits, and—most pivotal in the Russia affair—limitations on what subjects Mueller’s team will raise.
The best outcome for the president might be a drastically cramped “interview” in which nothing important is accomplished but after which he can say, and repeat into November 2020, that he was an open book on Russia, and the investigation exonerated him.
Federal prosecutors, it is often said, enjoy enormous power advantages over suspects and defendants. There are, however, areas in which the balance of power runs the opposite way. One is the ability to use the media. Criminal suspects and their lawyers have unfettered access to the press, while professional standards and Department of Justice rules severely restrict prosecutors from talking about what they are doing, especially at the investigative stage.
This asymmetry is even greater when the subject of the investigation is President Donald Trump, whose every tweet and utterance draws instant international coverage, and the prosecutor is Robert Mueller, who operates in a political environment that demands irreproachable conduct from him.
As a result, there are really two Russia investigations. One is visible to the public, fueled by the media, and susceptible to the president’s messaging operation. Trump and his allies have been increasingly disciplined about discrediting this public-facing investigation. See, for example, the attempts to smear Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, whose involvement in the investigation has come under attack by the president and whose retirement was publicized on Monday. See, also, the recent and increasingly forceful attempts of House Republicans to target Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises Mueller’s probe. While the president and his allies have engaged in this pressure campaign, they have simultaneously insisted that the president has cooperated fully with the investigation and will continue to do so. In this version of events, Trump would “love to” do an interview with Mueller and “looks forward” to setting the record straight. Indeed, he would gladly testify under oath if given fair conditions.
The president, of course, is no ordinary witness. Among other things, he is at serious legal risk in this matter and may effectively be a target of Mueller’s. Department of Justice guidelines, and norms of criminal practice, hold that investigative targets should not be subpoenaed to testify unless doing so is essential to an inquiry.
This rule, together with the president’s extraordinary job responsibilities, gives Trump’s lawyers the ability to force Mueller to deal with their demands. And they are presumably steep: no oath, no recording or transcript, only certain people in the room, unworkable time limits, and—most pivotal in the Russia affair—limitations on what subjects Mueller’s team will raise.
The best outcome for the president might be a drastically cramped “interview” in which nothing important is accomplished but after which he can say, and repeat into November 2020, that he was an open book on Russia, and the investigation exonerated him.
9 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It was HIS campaign that Mueller is investigating. Of course, next thing you know, he'll be disavowing his own campaign. "Whose campaign?" 
