Mueller has the answers to every one of these questions already, else he wouldn't have asked them. His team is also on record stating that they no longer need Trump's testimony. Basically: Mueller is going to recommend a list of charges so large and so serious that life in prison will be the best case scenario should Trump be successfully impeached and convicted.
Oh, man. Trump's going to lie his ass off, and Mueller's setting a trap for him.
I wonder if the leaking of these questions will help Mueller's investigation.
There's no focus on some of the more salacious allegations, so it should be pretty hard for Republicans to spin this series of questions as unfair or politically charged.
Maybe we'll see more public pressure from Republicans for Trump to answer Mueller's questions so they can get back to focusing on their agenda? I think we're near the point where the GOP is going to start breaking away from Trump.
Can't wait for the day Mueller lays out what he knows. It's gonna be one for the history books.
"[The investigation] shows an effort to understand the president's thinking" - I think the issue is that Trump is often incapable of reasoning things at all. If he just tried to think about things before making decisions, he'd be at the very least a bearable leader.
"An effort to understand the president's thinking"
Aren't we all?
Currently being reported that grammatical errors in the questions are indicating this list was leaked by the White House.
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/385602-muellers-former-assistant-says-grammatical-errors-prove-leaked-questions-came
Meanwhile, on Twitter (with that in context):
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/991267863674675200
anyone else expecting mueller to have an "accident" suddenly?
I'm anxious as fuck, dudes
Just a hunch but I bet that this list came from the WH so the conservative media can pick at each one with gusto building a case for corruption.
We already know it's a White House document, NYT said so in the original report
“What efforts were made to reach out to Mr. Flynn about seeking immunity or possible pardon?” Mr. Mueller planned to ask, according to questions read by the special counsel investigators to the president’s lawyers, who compiled them into a list. That document was provided to The Times by a person outside Mr. Trump’s legal team.
'A person outside Mr. Trump's legal team' only excludes his legal team though. Clarifying that it still came from the White House is important information, even though it didn't come from Trump's legal team.
100+ criminal charges, 22 indictments, and 5 guilty pleas. Even if the argument that you can't be guilty of obstruction of justice if the investigation you're obstructing doesn't find any other crimes were true (it's not), many serious crimes HAVE already been proven to have occurred.
Man, when the hell are we finally gonna get him to answer any of these questions?
Trump already got the questions ahead of time like he fucking wanted.
"Trump's legal team announces he will only submit to an interview if provided beforehand with a copy of the answers to the questions"
Yeah. Comey said in his book that he person being investigated is always interrogated late in the investigation; you never want to go into a line of questioning knowing less than the person of interest. You don't ask questions unless you know the answer already; you're simply trying to see if you can throw obstruction of justice/lying to the FBI in to the mix
Mueller should try playing into Trump's childishness and turning the interview into a gameshow, give him single-use lifelines like 'call Pence' and 'ask a lawyer', different round formats ('name 10 aides who never spoke with the Russians' 'which top White House official secretly flipped months ago and has been wearing a wire?'), maybe a sick theme song by Rockapella
Never. Trump's legal team will never sit with Mueller under oath, because many of these questions are impossible for him to give an answer on. Knowing that Mueller already has the answers to these questions, Trump lying is perjury, and Trump telling the truth is a confession. There's no way out of an interview with Mueller that doesn't significantly increase Trump's criminal liability, so he will never consent to one, and his lawyers will never let one happen while he is still a free man.
Thankfully, Trump's testimony is no longer required, per Mueller's own investigation team. He has the answers to these questions, and while he still may be pursuing other leads and investigative pathways, he has enough here to immediately recommend charges. He would not have sent these questions otherwise.
I'd also like to note that Trump doesn't have to be under oath to be prosecuted for lying; it's a federal crime to lie to the FBI, under oath or not
But only if you lie to them about a matter of FBI interest. Which, of course, is pretty much anything and everything Trump is doing behind the scenes.
Just pointing out that if your friend is an FBI agent, and they ask you if you have a dollar and you say no despite knowing you have several quarters in your pocket, it's not a legally actionable lie. But don't lie about whether or not you spent the night in Moscow when there's allegations that you did spend the night and the pee tape was allegedly made.
Right, the point was that if Trump goes into FBI HQ like how Clinton did in July 2016 for the email thing, he can still be prosecuted for anything he says in such an interview even if he's not under oath. Likely anything he says in that meeting would be considered relevant to the investigation. That's one thing Comey touched upon in his book when talking about the Clinton investigation (relating it to investigation Martha Stewart and her lying to the FBI), saying that some people thought Clinton should have been put under oath, but that he said it was unnecessary
Oh, and Trump's conscience of guilt is on full display again, this time because he's insisting that his worst fear will not happen in spite of the large amount of evidence showing it will.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-bizarrely-says-mueller-doesnt-plan-to-ask-about-russia-collusion-2018-5
Lies like this just be like a pacifier to him. He's so scared something will happen, he convinces himself it won't, and then he goes around insisting to others that his realty is authoritative.
In related news...
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/991363005924421632?s=19
I would hazard a guess that rather than Trump's bullshit working it's more likely that the people who answered they want it to end meant it in more of a "I think he has enough info already and want Trump out" way than the way it's being suggested in that tweet.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/so-disgraceful-trump-lashes-out-at-publication-of-special-counsel-questions/2018/05/01/f3796a9e-4c7b-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/01/the-7-most-intriguing-questions-robert-mueller-wants-to-ask-trump/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/01/trumps-tweets-suggest-he-doesnt-understand-his-legal-jeopardy/
Trump wants to believe, or at least he wants everyone else to believe, that obstructing an investigation isn't a crime if the investigation doesn't find any wrongdoing. That's not how things work.
I'm sure the flailing will just get worse until he loses patience and fires Mueller, and then he's asking to be truly fucked.
What the fuck are you doing America
Flynn's sentencing hearing just got postponed 'due to the status of the special counsel's investigation'
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/991420505470140416?s=19
Not exactly sure what that means, but I'm guessing he flipped?
He flipped yonks ago but I guess they ain't done with him yet
A bit out of the loop, what is currently holding Mueller back from snacking on some cheetos?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
