So, the Republican strategy is, “See, we know he’s a liar, and you know he’s a liar, but we can’t have him lying under OATH.”
Yeah, sounds like a winner.
“Our client lies too much to testify” said no confident legal team ever.
“Mueller responds with a subpoena, it would likely set up a high-stakes legal showdown—one in which the special counsel might have the upper hand.”
Yep. He’s not avoiding it if subpoenaed, so I hope he continues to play games. Mueller should subpoena him and sit his ass in front of the grand jury where his lawyers can’t be present and then watch him spend several hours claiming the 5th “on advice of counsel, because this is a witch hunt and a hoax” in response to extremely pointed questions. It will destroy him.
NO. QUARTER.
“He’s also like a feral macaque…totally untrainable and we can’t trust that he’ll follow instructions to plead the 5th to everything when we’re not present in the grand jury room.”
All of this is coming to a head before November. Bank on it.
Also, I predict that if Mueller is nice enough to give him a shot at testifying in a deposition setting with his lawyers present, it will last all of 30 minutes before Trump and his lawyers start hemming and hawing and yelling about “inappropriate questions” and “you’ve clearly already made up your mind that he’s guilty” and “entrapment” and “this is a sham and a PR stunt” and whatever else feces they can come up with to smear all over the transcript before yelling “that’s it…this deposition is over…we’ve had it with your bias and gestapo tactics” and storming out of the room. I’ve seem people play that game before when they know sitting through a deposition is going to be a total shitshow for them
I would just love to have them stick a video camera with a blinking red light 6 feet away from Trump’s face the way they did with Bill Clinton and leak it hours later.
Must see TV.
“Trump’s legal team would move to quash the subpoena, arguing that a sitting president shouldn’t be required to take time and resources away from his official duties to be questioned in an ongoing criminal investigation”
Simple. They could interview him during commercial breaks.
Didn’t Trump say a week or two ago that he was “looking forward” to testifying to Mueller?
Just add some sodium pentathol to Donnie’s daily Thorazine dart.
He’ll be chock fill of truthiness…
Problem solved.
“Trump’s legal team would move to quash the subpoena, arguing that a sitting president shouldn’t be required to take time and resources away from his official duties to be questioned in an ongoing criminal investigation”
Yes, and how’d that argument turn out for Bubba? The one difference might be that Trump will deliberately start a war before then in order to claim that as a material difference.
Mueller could provide 2 Big Macs, a bucket of fried chicken and a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke. That should account for half of our president’s executive workday.
Or a hose, a bucket, a towel and an adjustable massage bench with arm and ankle restraints.
Perhaps even the Chris Hitchens signature model.
Trump is not good at this
Hey, what happened to: “I’m looking forward to talking to Mueller! Under oath!!”?
Why, it’s almost as if the guy is a bullshit artist.
“Talk, you manchurian bitch, talk and this can all be over!!!”
Almost.
Though his problems are continuing, he’s very much that way now.
My own view is that a refusal to be interviewed by Mueller will accelerate Trump’s departure from the WH.
When Trump refuses to sit for an interview, he will force Mueller to seek a subpoena. That subpoena will come from a grand jury. Trump will challenge the subpoena and berate the GJ process as biased against him because he will play to the stereotype that a DC jury will be comprised of African Americans who don’t like him because they think he is racist (of course, there’s no bias at all because Trump is a racist).
The courts will uphold the subpoena. Trump will then cry foul and then he will thumb his nose at the GJ process. In addition to various legal means to compel him to appear, at that point, I would anticipate that Mueller will have sought indictments and guilty pleas on other players who likely have evidence pointing to Trump. Now, Mueller can go soft and make an impeachment referral or just choose not to do anything and let Trump walk, or he’ll get pissed that Trump flouts the rule of law and will seek an indictment. If Trump thumbs his nose at the legal process, he will have made it much easier for Mueller to justify a criminal indictment from a Grand Jury. My sense is that Mueller would not put up with Trump’s games and would seek an indictment and let the courts make the call.
If the courts uphold the indictment (which they should, but yeah I know…Gorsuch), then Trump will probably not face trial until after he leaves office. At that point, Trump will attempt to negotiate his way out of trial/jail in exchange for leaving office. I would also assume by that time that a lot more indictments and guilty pleas will have been handed down, making his guilt all but a certainty.
UPDATE: As a counterpoint, one other possibility is that Josh seems to suggest is that the courts could rule that Trump must go through the impeachment process first before he may be indicted. This doesn’t quite fit with the Nixon or Starr precedents, but is definitely a plausible and a defensible argument for a conservative judge to take.
“Trump might then comply and take the stand, where he could take the politically risky step of pleading the Fifth or telling the jury he does not recall the answers to key questions.”