Late last night, the New York Times dropped the latest in its saga of reports (fed to its reporters, we imagine, by a senior member of Mueller’s team, if not the man himself) about the ongoing negotiations over a long-sought presidential interview.
Trump’s legal team has been wrangling with Mueller for months over the terms of a potential presidential interview. The president himself has vacillated between toying with cooperating and steadfast refusal.
Most recently, Rudy Giuliani, the newest member of his legal team, has taken charge of the negotiations, seeking to leverage his decades-old relationship with Mueller.
Last night, the Times published a list of questions that the Mueller team had delivered to Trump’s attorneys – a list that Trump’s team had sought for months.
Here are the questions Mueller wants to ask Trump: https://t.co/SlQ3LloALL pic.twitter.com/rLMYTmRJZ7
— Amy Fiscus (@amyfiscus) May 1, 2018
Trump responded to the list of nearly four dozen questions with furious series of tweets this morning, declaring that none of the questions pointed to collusion with the Russians – the latest evidence that the whole probe is nothing more than a “witch hunt.”
So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were “leaked” to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see…you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018
Trump also questioned how he could be guilty of obstruction of justice if the crime he’s accused of interfering with never happened.
It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018
Then Trump turned his attention to a delegation of Trump administration officials and their coming trip to China. Trump asserted that, much like the North Korea issue and NAFTA, the US trade deficit with China “should have been fixed years ago.”
Delegation heading to China to begin talks on the Massive Trade Deficit that has been created with our Country. Very much like North Korea, this should have been fixed years ago, not now. Same with other countries and NAFTA…but it will all get done. Great Potential for USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018
Circling back to the Mueller questions, we can’t help but wonder: While the Times would have us believe that the leak came from Mueller’s office, what if Trump’s team intentionally leaked the questions to give their boss cover to finally fire the special counsel – or at least refuse to sit for an interview.
via RSS https://ift.tt/2FyPEjg Tyler Durden