Friday, January 26, 2018

Trump’s Friends and Advisers Are Terrified of What He Might Say to Mueller


There has been a drumbeat in the White House and on Fox News warning of the big-league risks the president would run.

By Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay

Some of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers and allies are pleading with him not to give sworn testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller.

It’s an ongoing struggle. One that has intensified in recent days as everyone from White House officials, to trusted campaign hands, to friends and confidants on the phone have repeated a variation of the same refrain: Listen to your lawyers. Listen to your lawyers. Oh, dear God, please listen to your lawyers.

Trump actually did that last June, The New York Times reported Thursday evening, when he ordered Mueller fired only to reverse himself after White House counsel Don McGahn said he would quit instead of asking the Justice Department to do that.

“It would be monumentally and historically stupid,” a senior White House official said, regarding the possibility of Trump quickly submitting himself to a no-holds-barred sit-down, under oath, with the special counsel.

Those advising the president say they are confident that he is innocent of the allegations central to Mueller’s investigation—that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russian agents to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. But they fret the possibility that by subjecting himself to questioning, he could open himself up to additional legal quagmires, made all the more complicated by revelations on Thursday night that the president attempted to have Mueller fired, only to back off after White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to quit.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The Daily Beast

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