Rudy Giuliani reveals how Trump's legal team plans to fight a Mueller subpoena all the way up to the Supreme Court

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Rudy Giuliani reveals how Trump's legal team plans to fight a Mueller subpoena all the way up to the Supreme Court

Rudy Giuliani

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Rudy Giuliani.

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  • President Donald Trump's legal team is gearing up to battle a possible subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller.
  • That fight could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
  • In a brief text message exchange with Business Insider, the president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, explained what the Trump team's argument will be.


President Donald Trump's legal team is gearing up to battle a possible subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller all the way to the Supreme Court.

And in a brief text message exchange with Business Insider, Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, explained how the president's team will argue that such a subpoena would be unconstitutional.

As The Washington Post reported Wednesday night, Trump's lawyers are preparing to oppose that possible subpoena from Mueller, which would be served to compel the president to sit down with the special counsel for an interview. The president's legal team is drafting a rebuttal to such a subpoena that could set off a sensational battle in the federal court system.

"We would move to quash the subpoena," Giuliani told The Post. "And we're pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena."

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He added that Trump's lawyers are ready to fight the subpoena "before the Supreme Court, if it ever got there."

In his exchange with Business Insider, Giuliani said Trump team's would cite Article II of the Constitution - which established the executive branch and its powers - and a 2000 memo authored by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel following President Bill Clinton's scandal. This states that while the Constitution does not give the president immunity from prosecution, the president cannot be indicted.

"We are talking about a protection not for records but as against a personal appearance," Giuliani said. "It has never been carried to conclusion and therefore the Supreme Court has no decision on point. We think there is a good chance the [Supreme] Court would recognize at least a qualified privilege and then [Mueller's team] would have to show need" for the sit-down with Trump.

Robert Mueller

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Robert Mueller.

Independent counsel Ken Starr served Clinton with such a subpoena to get him to appear before a grand jury, but it was withdrawn once Clinton agreed to testify. Because of that, the Supreme Court, as Giuliani noted, has not had to make a ruling on a similar matter involving a president.

Earlier this summer, Giuliani told Business Insider the Trump team believes that since the special counsel is governed by the Justice Department, Mueller does not have the power to subpoena the president.

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"Because they only have the authority given to them by the Justice Department, and the Justice Department has withheld the authority to indict the president or subpoena the president," Giuliani said.

The federal statute governing the special counsel, meanwhile, says that they "shall comply with the rules, regulations, procedures, practices, and policies of the Department of Justice," though there is an exception for "extraordinary circumstances."

A battle over a possible subpoena comes as the two sides continue what has been a lengthy back-and-forth over the conditions for a potential Trump interview with Mueller, who is tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and is also looking into whether the president sought to obstruct justice regarding the probe.

Giuliani told The Post that he's still waiting for Mueller's response to the Trump team's latest terms for such an interview, which they made last week in a letter that argued against the president having to answer any questions related to obstruction of justice.

Four people familiar with the encounter told The Post that Mueller let Trump's lawyers know in March that he may issue a subpoena for Trump to appear before a grand jury if the president declined to be interviewed. Trump has publicly expressed openness to such an interview, but his lawyers have long cautioned him against doing so, saying that Mueller might be trying to lure the president into a perjury trap.

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If pursued, such a subpoena battle could go on for months.

"Even if we responded in 10 days to a subpoena, it would have to be decided by a district court judge, and you could appeal it in a circuit court, and then you argue it before the Supreme Court, if it ever got there," Giuliani told The Post.

A spokesperson for the special counsel declined comment to Business Insider.

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