President Donald Trump’s laywer just made an announcement that will derail any hopes special counsel Robert Mueller had in “obstruction” charges.
Trump will not answer federal investigators’ questions, in writing or in person, about obstruction in the 2016 election, one of the president’s attorneys told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Rudy Giuliani said questions about obstruction of justice were a “no-go.” In the most definitive rejection yet of special counsel Robert Mueller’s efforts to interview the president, Giuliani signaled the Trump’s lawyers are committed to protecting the president, which legal experts hailed as a brilliant move.
Negotiations about the scope and format of an interview are still ongoing. If the president’s legal team holds its stance, it could force Mueller to try to subpoena the president, likely triggering a standoff that would end in the Supreme Court.
Mueller’s office has previously sought to interview the president about the obstruction issue, including his firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s legal team has argued that the president has the power to hire and fire appointees and the special counsel does not have the authority to ask him to explain those decisions. Giuliani said Thursday the team was steadfast in that position.
“That’s a no-go. That is not going to happen,” Giuliani said. “There will be no questions at all on obstruction.”
In a hail mary legal move last week last week, Mueller’s team said it would accept a written responses from Trump on questions related to Russian election interference. Giuliani suggested Thursday that Trump’s lawyers had agreed to those terms, but wanted to prohibit investigators from asking follow-up questions.
“It would be in written form and if you want to follow up on our answers, justify it. Show us why you didn’t get there the first time,” Giuliani said. He said he was not categorically ruling out answering a second round of questions but the entire matter of whether there would be follow-up inquiries should be settled before the president answers anything at all.
“We aren’t going to let them spring it on us,” said Giuliani.
Trump’s lawyers understand that being interviewed by the special counsel will not benefit the president legally. The president has been known to have a very open dialogue, and is know to exaggerate at times. Mueller knows this.
How would an interview with the president help to end this so-called “witch hunt?” It won’t, says Trump’s legal team.
Trump and Giuliani have instead led an onslaught of attacks on Mueller’s credibility, claiming that the special counsel was biased and that the entire probe was a “witch hunt.”
Giuliani has also demanded that the probe suspend its activities with the midterm elections approaching, and the former mayor said Thursday he was not certain of Mueller’s final timeline.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.