Donald Trump May Answer Obstruction Questions In The Russia Investigation After All
The much anticipated face to face with Donald Trump and FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller is underway, and everyone wants to know what will happen. Although the Trump administration may have pushed back against this interview in the past, apparently things have taken a turn. In anticipation of the interview, Donald Trump might allow "wiggle room" for the Russia investigation's obstruction questions. Grab your popcorn, folks.
On Aug. 7, Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani told Politico that he and his legal team will allow Robert Mueller some "wiggle room" on asking Donald Trump questions about obstruction of justice, according to Talking Points Memo. He suggested that the president would be open to answering the questions, provided they weren't a surprise.
He said,
If [Mueller] can demonstrate to us he’s got a couple questions on obstruction that he doesn’t have the answer to, that he really needs the answer to and he hasn’t made up his mind that Trump is lying, we might — we might — allow that. We’ll leave a little wiggle room. It’s not so much obstruction questions. It’s really sucker punches.
This is a huge change of mind from his previous statements on Aug. 6, where he admitted he was "reluctant" to open the floor to questions surrounding obstruction of justice, and that he and his team hadn't "decided" whether they would allow them. Well, it looks like the decision has been made. Kinda.
According to Talking Points Memo, the Trump team has set up prep sessions for any possible interview, but the sessions have not begun as of yet. One thing is for certain, Mueller is not playing around in his investigation. According to a July 26 report from The New York Times, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly looking through Donald Trump's past tweets, particularly negative ones aimed at former FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The reasoning behind this research is to find out if Trump's public posts were made as a way to force these officials to back down from the impending Russian investigation, which ultimately would be obstruction of justice. The Department of Justice declined to comment to Elite Daily about the report.
Jill Wine-Banks, who was a prosecutor in the Watergate case, told MSNBC on July 26 that Trump's tweets could be signs of obstructing justice, especially since he made his "threats" so public.
"He's sending a message to all these people, 'Do what I want you to do or else,'" Wine-Banks told MSNBC. "He could say that in a one-on-one meeting or he could say it through his Twitter account, both of which amount to obstruction of justice, and he should be held liable."
Despite Mueller's interest and Wine-Banks' opinion, Giuliani told the Times that Trump's tweets are not an obstruction of justice, and said at the time that obstructing justice is usually done "secretly, and not in public."
“If you’re going to obstruct justice, you do it quietly and secretly, not in public,” Giuliani told The Times. Elite Daily reached out to representatives of Trump for further comment at the time, but did not hear back.
Who knows what will come from this long anticipated Mueller-Trump sit down. I, for one, can't wait to see how it unfolds.
