Well Don, the wolf is at the door.
SHS soon: âActually, President Trump does wear a bathrobe in the White House. Heâs been looking confused recently. I donât know why Mueller wants to harass an old man who just wants to be left aloneâ
Do you think Don knows yet - that the leak of the questions came from inside the (White) house?
We are living in a historical time, people will be analyzing these events for years to come. If only it werenât so.
I canât see Trump agreeing to be interviewed by Muellerâs team. Despite Trumpâs bravado, he must know heâll f it up. And if Mueller subpoenaâs him, Trumpâs lawyers will fight that. If it ends up at SCOTUS, Iâm not optimistic that the subpoena will be upheld. We can only hope that Mueller has a Plan B for this eventuality. On the positive side, I think he has gamed this out and does have a plan.
âThis isnât some game,â Dowd said at the time, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke with the Post. âYou are screwing with the work of the President of the United States.â
Hear that Mr. Mueller? Youâre messinâ with his golf game now. Nobody messes with his golf game and lives to talk about it.
The worst thing will be the âTrump-Truthersâ: âHe was really brilliant, a stable Genius, sabotaged by deep state! Obama did it! The Nobel was his, but he got cheatedâ
I think heâll just take the 5th. Thereâs no arguing his right to do that, and his supporters wonât care. Itâs just a witch hunt after all.
Trumpâs lawyer Jay Sekulow put together a list of 49 questions that the President may be asked
I think we know where the Times got its list, but I doubt that Trump has put it together yet.
Iâd prefer he play golf, lots of it in fact. Mar-a-Lago soothes the beastâs soul; if he hangs in DC he fumes and brings the cray.
âThis isnât some game,â
Yup, that is what the word subpoena means.
And, Mueller knows full well he is the President, so double that.
âThis isnât some game,â Dowd said at the time, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke with the Post. âYou are screwing with the work of the President of the United States.â
Iâm with Lawrence OâDonnell: not only is that an utterly stupid, empty thing to say to someone like Mueller, it is highly likely that Dowd himself is one of the two anonymous sources for that quote (Giuliani perhaps being the other) and that he never even said it. Itâs the kind of line that would be delivered by Nicolas Cage in one of his lame movies like National Treasure. No doubt thatâs how Dowd imagined it: âThis isnât some game, Mr. Mueller. You are screwing with the work of the president. [Dramatic pause] You are screwing with the work of the President of the United States of America.â The camera stays on Dowdâs serious, determined face for a few extra seconds. And then we cut to the next scene. [Add: I am going with @dickweedâs suggestion here: âThen they show Donald sitting at his desk shuffling some paper and pretending to read them.â] Yes, Iâm sure that happened.
The so-called President should have thought of that before he fired Comey and then bragged about it to the Russkies. However, thinking beyond 140 characters has not proven to be among the so-called Presidentâs talents. Sometimes he doesnât even make it to 140 before he hits covfefe and has to ask for help.
If Mueller goes ahead with the subpoena we are right back to the days of Ken Starrâs subpoena of Clinton. That issue was never actually decided because Clinton agreed to an interview. Of course, back in Watergate the courts decided interrogatories and production of documents could be served on a sitting President, so I suspect Mueller has the stronger case but the precise issue of whether a President can be required to appear before a grand jury is still open and would require a trip to the Supreme Court to decide.That bit of legal theatrics would take time and would tie the President up well into 2019. Rudyâs promise that this case would end last week would be a faded memory.
Mueller and Rosenstein are, so far, following my dream roadmap to remove this Administration from power and hold accountable many members of the Trump inner circle. Itâs important to note that this article greatly clarifies the source of the âquestionsâ posed by Mueller to the Trump lawyers. Jay Sekulow (and likely John Dowd) put the list together based on conversations with Mueller. Sekulow also appears to have re-worded/re-structured the 16 topic areas into 49 questions. The 4 sources for the WAPO piece all appear to be from Trumpâs legal team, and Dowd is one of the key sources as he is quoted in the article (and is not a Trump legal team member, officially, which aligns to NYTâs sourcing reference). Maddow and OâDonnell have excellent breakdowns of this article. A key thing they note is that the discussion of a subpoena would not likely have happened without Mueller consulting with Rosenstein.
I think Mueller is using the prospect of a subpoena as a jab to keep Trump off balance while he readies a big roll up of others. What I hope Mueller will do over the course of the next 6 weeks is to indict all that are mentioned by name or by implication in the questions released by the NYT. This would include the following: Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr, Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, Carter Page, Erik Prince, Mike Pence, the Trump campaign entity, and the Trump Organization.
I especially want Mueller to indict the Trump campaign entity and the Trump Org. Those indictments would be a back door way to get Trump on the stand and force his resignation. He could claim no privilege on any of those matters. Once Mueller has rolled up that list, he can then compel Trump to testify via subpoena and Trump would essentially be in the bunker at that point. The level of pressure on all fronts would force him to make mistakes and force those around him to seek the exits. Eventually, that would lead to his departure.
Why did these questions leak? One theory is that Trump wanted to use the questions as evidence of an overly-aggressive and out of control special prosecutor as a justification to refuse the interview. It is perhaps a pre-text to firing Mueller and Rosenstein (yet again). Iif it is what they think, itâs clearly not working. These questions donât cast Trump in a good light. They make it quite clear that Mueller has a lot of evidence on âcollusionâ. The whole Trump game has been to use Nunesâ House Intel committee to whitewash the #trumprussia scandal and sell to the country that there was no âcollusionâ and therefore no one should take Mueller seriously. Exposing these questions flies in the face of that strategy. Trump doesnât need this to undermine Mueller through propaganda. He has been raising Muellerâs negatives among Republicans for a while. This would actually cause Republicans to not walk down that path too far with Trump. They might provide nominal support, but itâs not going to be impassioned support. Turnout will be depressed for the mid-terms because of him and he will drag down candidates.
Another theory is that Trumpâs attorneys know that Trump cannot testify before Muellerâs prosecutors as he will incriminate himself. In that sense, releasing these questions is intended to dissuade Trump from sitting down with Mueller and force Mueller to seek a subpoena and eventually plead the 5th Amendment if Mueller is successful in the courts (which he should be based on precedent). This puts delay into the process and buys some time for Trump. This makes a bit more sense to me. It has been reported that Trump has expressed a desire to talk to Mueller because he wants a showdown. His attorneys have been dead set against it for obvious reasons: heâs a terrible client; he would be an unwitting witness for the prosecution; and he will lie. I think what Trump has wanted is to give the appearance of cooperation but to never actually sit down with Mueller. He knows what he and his team did.
Another theory (of my own) is that these questions were intentionally released by Dowd to sound the alarm that the ship is sinking and the best option for Trump and the country is if he navigates a path to resignation in exchange for avoidance of prosecution. If you are a counsel to Trump and are fulfilling an ethical duty to act in the clientâs best interests, this makes sense to me. If the investigation and legal process is allowed to run the normal course, Trump is guilty as are all of his associates. The questions tell us that the evidence Mueller has on a lot of these tracks is overwhelming. The only way Trump escapes (legally) is if he goes the âfull Naziâ and shuts the investigation down by firing the entire Justice Department, FBI and court system. The issue of fully prosecuting the entire Trump crew is one of political will; itâs not about the strength or validity of the legal claims. So, if youâre a counsel to Trump and you think heâs guilty, getting him a deal is the best representation you can do for your client.
Weâll see where this goes, but I think that Mueller should now be well on the path to indicting many others in order to increase pressure on Trump.
Precedent is clearly on Muellerâs side. Dowdâs little outburst was nothing more than staged outrage; he knows that the battle over whether or not a sitting President has to submit to a subpoena has already been decided (he does).
And the President submitting a request that he will personally review all of Cohenâs evidence to determine if privilege exists, blows a pretty substantial hole into the main thrust of any argument against the President being subpoenaed.
Finally, they lose the PR battle on this if they try to appeal it up to the SCOTUS (which they still should do and probably will) in a big way.
I would add that Mueller getting a GJ subpoena is the most likely path going forward, though its still somewhat off in the distance.
The consensus seems to be that it was leaked by Dowd. I have a hard time believing Sekulow released them because there is no motive there. Having these out there is not helpful to his client in anyway. It makes his client look guilty, it shows that Mueller is not on a fishing trip, but is focused on a relatively narrow set of issues, and it creates a PR nightmare for the WH.
Sadly however, the media isnât covering this the way I expected. They continue to stay distracted by a comedienne at their event and/or Kanye saying stupid shit again.
Leave Donny alone !
If youâre sketching out a Trump resignation scenario, I think if the Kim discussions collapse, that might cause him to want to head to the exits.
Witch Hunt!!!
Iâll get you, my pretty! And your little Dotard, too!
Yes, " Oops, there goes the Nobel ! Iâm out of here"