TRUMP ‘FLEXING’ FOR MUELLER
Experts: How far will high-stakes fight go?
President Trump is staking out a tough stance against special counsel Robert Mueller — threatening to resist any questions and hinting at an unprecedented self-pardon — but top constitutional lawyers say he should go farther and fire the controversial prosecutor, take him to court, or undermine him by pardoning all his targets.
Trump’s legal team sent a letter to Mueller in January disputing Mueller’s right to subpoena him, maintaining that the president could “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon,” The New York Times reported this weekend. The news has sparked furious speculation about how far the president is willing to go in the high-stakes fight.
First Amendment lawyer Harvey Silverglate, who doesn’t support Trump politically, told the Herald Trump would be well within his rights to fire Mueller, or undermine Mueller’s investigation by pardoning his targets, starting with Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen.
“I don’t see any evidence that Trump committed a crime,” Silverglate said. “There is no question Trump could pardon anyone else Mueller is going after, and if I were Trump, I would start doing that right away . ... This is a colossal distraction.
“The people who support Mueller, their flames will rage no matter what. They have a kind of fever,” Silverglate said. “Given the way Mueller has conducted himself, he deserves to be fired . ... It is an uncivilized tactic, to go after someone’s lawyer, to squeeze him to get him to turn on his client.”
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz characterized the talk of a self-pardon and threats to fight a subpoena as Trump “flexing muscle.”
“This is a negotiating position,” Dershowitz told the Herald. “The way to look at this is to look at how he has handled North Korea and Iran . ... He is engaged in the art of the deal, and he is trying to gain leverage. We’ll see some negotiating. If it breaks down, we’ll see a subpoena. And then we’ll see a court case.”
But Dershowitz, a Democrat who has been highly critical of the Mueller investigation, said of a self-pardon, “There’s no way that’s going to happen.”
If in fact Trump fears prosecution, Dershowitz said, he could wait until the last day of his presidency, step aside and let his vice president pardon him. But Dershowitz said he does not believe it will come to that.
“He can’t be charged with obstruction if all he did was his duty,” Dershowitz said, noting that the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey was within Trump’s rights as chief executive.
Trump’s lead attorney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, downplayed the explosive self-pardon talk yesterday, saying on news shows that while Trump “probably does” have that power, he “has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn’t say he can’t.” Giuliani suggested a self-pardon could even fuel an impeachment. But he added, “The president has no need to do that. He’s done nothing wrong. It’s not going to happen.”
Trump is likely to resist all but the narrowest questioning by Mueller, however, Giuliani said. Mueller has requested an interview to determine whether Trump had criminal intent to obstruct the investigation into his associates’ possible links to Russia’s election interference. If Trump does not agree, Mueller will have to decide whether to pursue a historic grand jury subpoena.