Mueller issues grand jury subpoena warning to president over Russia
ROBERT MUELLER, the special counsel investigating whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, has raised the possibility he could subpoena the president to testify before a grand jury.
Mr Mueller issued the threat during a tense meeting with Mr Trump’s lawyers in March, saying he would carry it out if the president did not agree to be interviewed voluntarily.
Were Mr Trump to refuse a subpoena it could provoke a legal battle going all the way to the US Supreme Court, potentially leading to a constitutional crisis over the limits of presidential power.
Last night, Mr Trump appeared to signal a confrontational approach amid reports he would hire Emmet Flood, a lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings.
Mr Flood will replace Ty Cobb, whose retirement was announced by the White House moments after he suggested, in a television interview, that a voluntary interview may take place.in a statement the White House said Mr Cobb had informed them of his retirement plan last week.
Mr Trump has lambasted the idea of him being subpoenaed as a “witch hunt,” adding that he had the “unfettered power to fire anyone” under the constitution. He wrote on Twitter: “There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap).” John Dowd, who was Mr Trump’s lead lawyer at the time of the meeting in March but has since resigned, confirmed Mr Mueller had given the subpoena warning.
Following the meeting Mr Mueller’s team agreed to provide the president’s lawyers with specific information they
‘There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap)’
wanted to ask him about in an interview. That information was read over the phone and one of Mr Trump’s lawyers compiled it into a list of 49 questions, which were leaked this week. Mr Trump said Mr Mueller’s questions were “an intrusion into the president’s powers under the Constitution to fire any Executive Branch Employee”.
If subpoenaed Mr Trump could exercise his Fifth Amendment right, refusing to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself. However, John Dean, the star witness in Watergate, said: “(Legally) he could, but it would be politically impossible, or very difficult.”
During Watergate the Supreme Court ordered Richard Nixon to comply with a subpoena to hand over White House tapes. Mr Nixon resigned two weeks later. In 1998 Bill Clinton fought a subpoena issued in a civil case brought by Paula Jones, but the Supreme Court ruled he had to testify.
♦ Donald Trump has approved his first release of a Guantánamo Bay prisoner. Ahmed al Darbi, 43, a Saudi Arabian citizen whose brother-in-law was one of the 9/11 plane hijackers, was transferred back to his home country to serve out the rest of his 13-year sentence. He admitted war crimes in 2014 relating to the 2002 bomb attack on an oil tanker in the waters off Yemen.