Judge Napolitano warns President Trump about Mueller
This report in the New York Times certainly looks like a leak, which seems to be the modus operandi of the current special counsel investigation:
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told President Trump's lawyers last month that he will probably seek to interview the president, setting off discussions among Mr. Trump's lawyers about the perils of such a move, two people familiar with the discussion said on Monday.
No formal request has been made and no date has been set. White House officials viewed the discussion as a sign that Mr. Mueller's investigation of Mr. Trump could be nearing the end. ...
Mr. Trump's lawyers are expected to try to set ground rules for any interview or provide answers to written questions. If Mr. Trump were to refuse outright to cooperate, Mr. Mueller could respond with a grand jury subpoena.
Judge Andrew Napolitano sees a trap. Video is below, but the essence (via Grabien) is:
NAPOLITANO: I would jump in on what you were discussing second to last, which is whether or not the president ought to submit to an interview to Bob Mueller and FBI agents. My argument is never, never, never end caps should he do that.
MacCALLUM: Why?
NAPOLITANO: Because he cannot know what Mueller and his team know about the case. He cannot know what evidence they have and one lie or one close to a lie about a material matter and he's facing a potential indictment. I don't know what would happen with the indictment because he is a sitting president. No sitting president has ever been indicted for a crime but if the feds want to trap you, they are very, very good at doing it. Donald Trump is a very headstrong person who probably believes he is smarter than his interrogators and he may be, but he doesn't know more about the case than they do. It's a trap and he ought to stay away from it.
MacCALLUM: If you are the White House attorneys, you're trying to push at this point for submitted questions and answers on paper. Will they get that?
NAPOLITANO: If I'm the attorney I don't want my client to communicate with Bob Mueller at all. Bob Mueller and his team –
MacCALLUM: Do they have to?
NAPOLITANO: They absolutely don't. He doesn't have to speak to them. They can ask for it and he can say thank you, no, I'm the president and I have more important things to do. That's the advice I would give. That is pretty much standard advice. I've never represented the president[, a]n extremely strong[-]willed person who may very well say I'm going to talk to them no matter what you want and I'm going to go do it even if you don't come with me. Then you've got a problem when your client rejects her advice.
I gather that the judge believes that a grand jury subpoena could be postponed until after President Trump leaves office. President Clinton, however, set a precedent by testifying to a grand jury in August 17, 1998 for four hours via closed circuit television. That didn't work out very well for him.
Here is the complete segment: