Not an easing up; he’s boxing Trump in. Going to be as hard to lie in written responses as in person.
John Dowd reportedly told Mueller that Trump is too dumb to testify.
If only there were something in the Constitution that could help …
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal
officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress
may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate
and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written
declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and
duties of his office …
In all God’s Kingdom there may be no creature more lowly than the headline-writer.
Oh, good. Now Mueller will have written proof that Donald committed perjury.
And what’s with the “eases up” in the headline? It’s not like Mueller is on his knees begging President Fat Ass to send him his Crayola-written answers.
I think Mueller has already figured out, Mr. Dowd, that Donald Trump is too dumb to figure out the complexities of toilet paper.
The answers will be double spaced in Magic Marker on a presentation binder so the little boy can show everyone
Bullshit. Who’s going to ghost-write the intellectual infant’s responses?
My guess is that the questions will scare the crap out of Spanky and his lawyers. Mueller has been many steps ahead of the Orange Menace every step of the way. I doubt this is any different.
Dowd:
I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot and embarrass the nation on the world stage.
Too late for that… he is a Fucking idiot, and has already embarrassed the nation on the world stage, there is NO redemption for Trump
Did someone say something about embarrassment?
As was pointed out over at empty wheel, Trump lies. Only now, he either has to lie to his lawyers and get them to help him provide information which Mueller already has answers to, thereby implicating them, or he has to take the Fifth, implicating himself.
“I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot,” Dowd says
I’m afraid that stupid horse has already left the stupid barn.
But odds are that we’ll never see any answers. Mueller’s report will not be made public.
Much more difficult to later claim you misspoke when it’s in writing.
I think this also signals that getting an interview with Trump isn’t crucial to the case. I feel like at best it would be a finishing blow, since it’s extremely clear he would lie repeatedly under oath and very possibly lose his cool altogether.
In other words, Rudy and the gang are actually, probably inadvertently, telling the truth when they accuse Mueller’s interview request as a perjury trap, since there is little of value to be gained from an interview with a compulsive liar like Trump other than getting him to commit perjury.
Many rush to claim the President is not above the law. Except, you know, he is.
Next time a citizen is arrested for a significant crime and agrees to be cross examined by prosecutors pay attention to whether they’re permitted to skip a trip to the witness box and have their legal team craft responses to questions in writing.
This should be interesting, because now they have to figure out a reason why he shouldn’t have to answer those questions either. How long before someone leaks the questions?
I agree, except for this:
No, a perjury trap occurs when a prosecutor asks questions about immaterial facts in order to get the witness to lie. For example, if the inquiry were about collusion with Russians and a prosecutor were to ask Trump about his golf scores, that might be a perjury trap.
It’s not a legitimate prosecutorial tactic: it’s misconduct, and it’s beneath Mueller and any other good prosecutor.
I agree. Certainly it would have trivially easy to induce Trump to lie in an interview, but it would feed into the “perjury trap” excuse. Written answers that can be proven as lies by comparing them with the vast amounts of documentation that Mueller has are far better evidence.
Can you imagine the team of lawyers sitting down with Trump to try to come up with written answers to carefully crafted and pointed questions?
It may be that Giuliani slowly realizes this and then starts weaseling out of providing written answers, as well.
I think what’s important here is that these questions will only have to do with Russia. A lot of the media—the NYT in particular—has been pushing the line that Mueller is mainly concerned with obstruction but that issue isn’t even being asked about. Is it because Mueller has decided there is no case for obstruction? That’s laughable. No it’s because the case is so open and shut that there is no point in even asking questions about it. That Trump is going to be faced with questions about conspiracy (and either lie or refuse to answer) shows the focus of this investigation.