How Long Will President Trump Avoid Mueller??
William Banks, founding director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, was interviewed for the Bloomberg Radio story “Trump Lawyers Send Counteroffer to Mueller.”
Banks discussed the allegations that can be made against Trump for a meeting held in 2016 with Russians. Trump claims he had no knowledge of what the meeting was going to entail. However, Mueller disagrees and wishes to have a sit-down interview with the President and his legal team, but they refuse.
Banks, says, “I think until he released his most recent tweet about the 2016 meeting the answer was maybe he will. I think the tweet that he released on Monday morning where he admitted the purpose of the meeting in 2016 was to get information on an opponent as he put it and that he did not know about it. I think the two aspects of that tweet one, that the purpose was to get information on an opponent, if that was the purpose of the meeting it was clearly unlawful and they were conspiring with Russians to get dirt on Hilary Clinton, and second whether he knew about it or not of course is crucial. So, now, Mr. Mueller and his team have all the more reason to want to talk to the President then they did before, and I think at the same time the President because he’s now gone on Twitter record to say he didn’t know about the meeting if he contradicts that or if he holds to it, and then is found later to have known to have done otherwise, as his lawyer Michael Cohen is likely to testify then he is in even more hot water.”
Banks response to whether Trump’s legal team is holding back on the interview until it may be too late consists of, “I think they are, yes, but, you know, we know Mueller’s team can still go to a grand jury with this and if they don’t get an agreement with the President’s lawyers about an interview in the last couple of weeks in August then they may well choose to take that next step, and that’s hardball, but the President may be in a better position playing hardball now if the courts will eventually agree that he has a constitutional opportunity to avoid such an interview then he may not get caught in his lies or he may not have an opportunity to dig deeper holes for him or his kids.”