Trump’s options narrow as investigations close in
Washington: President Donald Trump is running out of options to avoid possible impeachment or prevent his family from prosecution, legal experts say.
The felony convictions of two former top aides on Tuesday demonstrated that Trump’s non-stop attacks have failed to impede Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion and obstruction investigation against him.
And while no one knows how strong a case Mueller has built against the President and his inner circle, Trump’s own behaviour suggests that he feels intense pressure.
Experts say he has three basic strategic options, none of them good.
Though he repeatedly says there was no crime committed, Trump has tried to disrupt and delay the probe, and has avoided being interviewed by Mueller for months.
That is a bad strategy if Trump truly has nothing to hide, says Eric Freedman, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University.
“He should absolutely adopt and embrace a policy of openness,” Freedman said, a move which could buttress the White House campaign to tarnish Mueller’s probe as a political “witch hunt”.
Doing so would require abandoning his support for former aides like Paul Manafort.
But Trump could justify that he is “draining the swamp” of Washington corruption, said Freedman.
Robert Bennett, a veteran Washington criminal defence lawyer, said it was too late for that.
“They decided a long time ago to attack the special counsel. It would be hard now to do an about-face,” he said. “Who is he going to turn on? He’s at the top of the food chain.”
And cooperating now would almost certainly not change the direction of Mueller’s probe, except possibly for the worse, said Bennett.
An interview with Mueller would be dangerous for Trump, who notoriously cannot stay on script.
“He couldn’t truthfully cooperate without further incriminating himself, is my guess,” Bennett said.
Cooperating could also force the President into a difficult position if, as many think, his son Donald Trump Jr or other family members fall into Mueller’s sights. What then? “Stall as long as possible and pardon him,” said Freedman.
Trump’s immediate hurdle is the Nov 6 election, in which Democrats are threatening to take control of one or both houses of Congress.
Trump needs to prevent that to avoid having a Congress that would support impeaching him.
His current strategy has been to convince voters that Mueller’s investigation is an illegitimate, pro-Democrat operation, in hopes of attracting support to Republicans.
Alternatively, Trump could fire Mueller and shut down the investigation. He has repeatedly threatened to do so, but has held back under warnings from lawmakers that it could provoke impeachment.