US President Donald Trump’s lawyers composed a secret 20-page letter to special counsel Robert Mueller to assert that Trump cannot be forced to testify, while arguing that he could not have committed obstruction because he has absolute authority over all federal investigations.
The existence of the letter, which was first reported and posted by the New York Times on Saturday, was a bold assertion of presidential power and another front on which Trump’s lawyers have argued that the president cannot be subpoenaed in the special counsel’s ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
The letter is dated Jan. 29 and addressed to Mueller from John Dowd, one of Trump’s lawyers at the time who has since resigned from his legal team.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers argue that a charge of illegal obstruction is moot because the US Constitution empowers the president to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”
Trump weighed in on Saturday on Twitter, asking: “Is the Special Counsel/Justice Department leaking my lawyers letters to the Fake News Media?”
“When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end? So bad for our Country,” he added.
Mueller has requested an interview with Trump to determine whether he had criminal intent to obstruct the investigation into his associates’ possible links to Russia’s election interference.
Trump had previously signaled that he would be willing to sit for an interview, but his legal team, including head lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have privately and publicly expressed concern that the US president could risk charges of perjury.
If Trump does not consent to an interview, Mueller would have to decide whether to forge forward with a historic grand jury subpoena.
His team in March raised the possibility of subpoenaing the US president, but it is not clear if it is still under active consideration.
Giuliani has said that Trump’s legal team believes the special counsel does not have the authority to do so.
A court battle is likely if Trump’s team argues that the US president cannot be forced to answer questions or be charged with obstruction of justice.
Former US president Bill Clinton was charged with obstruction in 1998 by the US House of Representatives as part of his impeachment trial, and one of the articles of impeachment prepared against then-US president Richard Nixon in 1974 was for obstruction.
Topics of Mueller’s obstruction investigation include the firings of Comey and former US national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well Trump’s reaction to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation.
Trump’s team and allies have waged a public relations campaign against Mueller to discredit the investigation.
Giuliani has previously said that the special counsel probe might be an “entirely illegitimate investigation” and need to be curtailed because, in his estimation, it was based on inappropriately obtained information from an informant and former FBI director James Comey’s memos.
In reality, the FBI in July 2016 began a counterintelligence investigation to determine if Trump campaign associates were coordinating with Russia to tip the US election.
Giuliani has said a decision would not be made about a possible interview with the special counsel until after Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in