Vanity Fair: Mueller viewing Trump as "a target, not a witness"?

[kpete]

“A TARGET, NOT A WITNESS”: WILL TRUMP’S LEGAL B-TEAM COLLAPSE BEFORE MUELLER?

The president’s struggle to recruit experienced lawyers could mask more ominous concerns. “As far as I can tell, Ty Cobb is the only attorney left on the Trump team with experience handling federal criminal investigations,” says one former prosecutor. “The team is thinner than you might expect for perhaps the most important investigation of our lifetime.”

............

......“What happened between last week, when DiGenova and Toensing were announced as joining the team, and yesterday?” mused Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under President Obama. “The conflict of interest issue was apparent on Tuesday, and yet we were told they were joining the team and that Mark Corallo (the person with the most significant conflict) had waived any concern. Then Dowd resigns Thursday, and yet by Sunday DiGenova and Toensing are gone, leaving the president with only two lawyers.” That strange development, Katyal posited to me, suggests that Robert Mueller may have intervened. “Diligent prosecutors, when they see a defendant doing something profoundly dangerous to their self-interest (including hiring lawyers who have conflicts), will raise it with the defendant and suggest they rethink it,” he explained. “I think it very possible that that happened here—Mueller is a scrupulous prosecutor and may have told Trump he had concerns about Trump’s own rights. If it did happen, it would strongly suggest that Mueller is formally thinking of Trump as a target of his investigation . . . A prosecutor would issue such a warning to a target, not to a witness."

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/donald-trump-legal-team-john-dowd-robert-mueller

[NewJeffCT]

1. It's been pretty obvious Trump is a target

the only question is if it's just multiple counts of obstruction or if it's also collusion/conspiracy and more.

Still, glad to see it make a mainstream publication.

[BigmanPigman]

2. Last week Blumenthal explained that Mueller has the proof for

collusion AND obstruction and money laundering is the motive. The investigation now has to go into all the laws broken by so many people for years and years (Bannon, the Mercers, CA/Facebook, UAE, Saudis, 2014 RNC midterms, etc.....)

[onit2day]

8. Trump is insulating himself with a war cabinet

[babylonsister]

3. I love this! nt

[triron]

4. I sure hope so.

[IluvPitties]

5. Sorry, Stormy, but this IS the story!

Go Mueller!

[Marie Marie]

6. Trump better be the target.

He is at the top of all this corruption.

[magicarpet]

7. Like a steaming pile of poop..

... all the odor emanates from King Orange of Spank Me - the target is on his back.

[oasis]

9. That's the beauty of it all.

Proceed.

[Kirk Lover]

10. That is my kinda headline !!

[EarnestPutz]

11. Diligent Prosecutors!!!

Wow. If this is true it must give the right wing, nut jobs heart burn.
The Greek chorus of attacks on Mueller's integrity lose some of their
punch when and if he is acting with such scruples.

[Hortensis]

13. Vanity Fair has to be on their corrupt liberal media list,

"fake news," along with every other journal with a reputation for integrity in this country or any other.

[Hortensis]

12. Very interesting explanation for this bizarre event.

The conflict of interest, which they had to have been entirely aware of, gives the very worst impression of DiGenova and Toensing. Did they do it imagining they'd be on TV every day while it lasted?

[Qutzupalotl]

14. Any lawyer who would represent Trump

has a fool for a client.

[NastyRiffraff]

15. If true, the only surprising thing is

that Trump actually listened to Mueller's warning him away from the TV lawyer with conflicts. I can see that Mueller would be concerned about Trump's rights to decent counsel; that's who Mueller is. But who browbeat Trump into listening to him?