'I don't think he fully appreciates the legal jeopardy he faces': Mueller's team is gearing up to interview Trump

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House via Marine One in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017, to spend the weekend at Camp David in Maryland.

• Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has reportedly broached the subject of interviewing President Donald Trump with his lawyers.
• Trump's defense team is looking into side-stepping a face-to-face sit-down between Trump and Mueller's team by either having Trump submit written responses to questions or avoiding an interview altogether.
• Legal experts say the news indicates that the obstruction-of-justice thread of the Russia investigation is likely nearing its end, and that the consequences could be "tragic" for Trump if he strays off script.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is in talks with President Donald Trump's legal defense team about interviewing him as part of the Russia investigation, multiple media outlets reported on Monday.

Mueller is overseeing the FBI's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the race in his favor. He is also said to be building an obstruction-of-justice case against Trump based on his decision to fire FBI director James Comey last May. Comey was overseeing the Russia probe at the time.

A person familiar with the matter told The New York Times on Monday that Mueller's team is focused mainly on questions about Comey's firing, as well as former national-security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump's legal team - which consists of personal defense lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow and White House lawyer Ty Cobb - has been strategizing about how to approach a possible interview with Mueller since former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted in October, NBC News reported. Mueller's team first brought up the possibility of interviewing the president when they met with his lawyers in late December, according to The Washington Post, but a formal request has not yet been made, nor a date set.

Trump's team is reportedly considering several options in response. That includes having the president submit written responses to questions, and submitting a sworn affidavit declaring his innocence and saying he did not collude with Russia. They are also looking into the possibility of avoiding an interview all together. And if Trump does sit down for a face-to-face interview, his team is reportedly willing to agree to that only with certain parameters in place that limit the scope of questioning.

Thomson Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel Mueller departs after briefing members of the U.S. Senate on his investigation in Washington

Trump's 'word-salad approach to interviews could get him in real trouble'

Legal experts say it's normal for defense lawyers to be cautious about an in-person interview, particularly with a client like Trump, who has a tendency to speak off-the-cuff.

Written answers to questions can be "carefully drafted, edited, analyzed and re-analyzed, whereas a face-to-face interview is unpredictable," said Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School who is an expert in criminal law. "This is especially true for Trump who resists sticking to a script and is notoriously unpredictable."

"His word-salad approach to interviews could get him in real trouble in a Mueller interview if he says something that turns out to be a deliberate lie," he added. "If I were one of his lawyers, I would insist on a written interview and refuse the in-person interview at all costs."

Prosecutors began looking into whether Trump sought to obstruct justice in the days immediately following Comey's firing and it was likely fueled, at least in part, by Trump's own comments. Though the White House initially said Comey was dismissed because of the way he handled the FBI's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, Trump later said on national television that "this Russia thing" had been a factor in his decision.

He also reportedly told two top Russian government officials during an Oval Office meeting one day after firing Comey that the FBI director's dismissal had taken "great pressure" off of him.

Comey added, during his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last June, that Trump complained to him about the Russia investigation multiple times and asked him during a private meeting last February to let go of the bureau's inquiry into Flynn. Flynn was fired one day before the meeting.

He pleaded guilty in December to one count of making false statements to investigators during an FBI interview in January of last year. Trump tweeted the day after Flynn's guilty plea was unsealed that he had to fire him "because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI."

Legal experts said at the time that if Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to drop the bureau's investigation, it would significantly bolster the obstruction case against him.

AP

'I don't think he fully appreciates the legal jeopardy he faces'

Reports that Mueller wants to interview Trump show "that at least part of the investigation is nearing the end," said former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer, who is now the managing director at Berkeley Research Group. "The President is clearly the last, or one of the last people, an investigator would like to question."

He also emphasized the potential consequences for Trump if the interview goes south, saying it could be "tragic" for him and, potentially, his close associates if Trump strays off script or makes baseless statements.

Though Trump's lawyers will push hard to either submit written answers to questions, or to avoid an interview altogether, it's unlikely Mueller's team will agree to forgo a face-to-face sit-down. It's also possible that Trump may overrule his lawyers' advice, Ohlin said, because he "feels he has nothing to hide, which is a dangerous belief for someone in his position. I don't think he fully appreciates the legal jeopardy he faces."

Trump said last year that he would be open to sitting down with Mueller's team. And when a reporter asked him on Saturday whether he would meet with investigators if they requested it, Trump said there was "no collusion" and "no crime." He also said that "everybody tells me I'm not under investigation."

Trump could theoretically refuse to cooperate. In that case, Mueller's team would likely respond with a grand jury subpoena. The Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, during the Watergate investigation in 1974, that the president is not above the law when it comes to being subpoenaed and cannot assert executive privilege over conversations or materials that have been subpoenaed as part of an ongoing investigation.

"I doubt the President can avoid answering questions in some fashion even if not before a grand jury," Cramer said.

Ohlin largely agreed and added that even if Trump refused, it "would look really bad - like he has something to hide. But if he does refuse the interview, I would expect him to accompany his refusal with a no-holds-barred attack on the legitimacy of Mueller and his investigation."