How Trump dodged a special counsel interview and a subpoena fight remains a lingering mystery of the Mueller probe
President Trump walks to Marine One to leave the White House on Jan. 14, 2019. By Philip Rucker , Philip Rucker White House Bureau Chief Email Bio Follow Carol D. Leonnig , Carol D.
Meanwhile, the Trump lawyers sent a steady stream of documents and witnesses to the special counsel, chipping away at Mueller’s justification for needing an interview with the president. In assessing whether to pursue such a high-stakes move, the special counsel was not operating with complete autonomy. That was a contrast with predecessors such as Kenneth Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton and had broad leeway under the now-expired independent counsel statute.
In the final months of the probe, there was upheaval in the department’s leadership. Trump ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the investigation. He was replaced temporarily by his former chief of staff, Matthew G. Whitaker, who was publicly critical of the special counsel before joining the department.
President Trump listens during a briefing on drug trafficking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 13. Weighing a legal showdown The president was initially inclined to sit for an interview with Mueller. He thought he could deliver a convincing performance and put a swift end to the probe.
Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani said that some of what Trump’s legal advisers were hearing from Mueller “raised our suspicion that this is a trap, rather than a search for more information.” Attorney General William P. Barr leaves his home on March 26. Robert W. Ray, a former independent counsel now in private practice at Thompson & Knight, said Mueller’s team would have had to weigh whether a subpoena could survive the court challenge that was all but certain to come from the Trump White House.
“That’s a major fight, and you have to decide whether, in the country’s best interests, it’s worth it,” Ray said. Still, the Trump’s legal advisers felt after the March meeting that a subpoena threat hung over the president. Giuliani said that roughly 80 percent of the Trump team’s interactions with the special counsel’s office were handled by Jane Raskin, who has known both Mueller and Quarles for years. She knew Mueller from her time as a federal prosecutor in Boston, while her husband had worked with Quarles.
“We allowed them to question everybody, and they turned over every document they were asked for: 1.4 million documents,” Giuliani said. “We had what you would call unprecedented cooperation.” All the while, Giuliani said, the legal team was not convinced that it would have prevailed in court. “Honestly, I don’t know who would have won,” he said. “I think our argument got better as time went on. But I don’t know if we would have won.”
But Rosenstein also noted that Mueller was not an entirely independent actor — and that his work was being closely supervised. Notably, Flood sent the memo not just to Mueller’s office, but also to Rosenstein by way of his top deputy, Edward O’Callaghan.As each month passed without a subpoena, the president’s attorneys increasingly doubted that Mueller would seek to obtain one, according to people with knowledge of internal discussions.
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