Rudy Giuliani, known as a bastion of truth and up to date information, is now claiming that Mueller told Trump's legal team that they "can't indict" a President. Hmmm...
May 16, 2018

Crazy Rudy is back in the news with another possibly false statement about the Mueller Investigation and the possible legal danger his septuagenarian best friend and current occupier of the White House, Donald Trump, may be facing.

His latest claim is that Robert Mueller's team informed Donald Trump's legal team that they cannot indict a sitting president. CNN is reporting that Giuliani told them that "All they get to do is write a report. They can't indict. At least they acknowledged that to us after some battling, they acknowledged that to us."

One big caveat - this is based on DOJ guidelines, and not about Mueller's team's position. Also, this doesn't cover any charges that could come if Trump is impeached or isn't relected in 2020. CNN could not get a statement from Mueller's team, of course.

When asked last month if a sitting president can be indicted, Rod Rosenstein said: "I'm not going to answer this in the context of any current matters, so you shouldn't draw any inference about it. But the Department of Justice has in the past, when the issue arose, has opined that a sitting President cannot be indicted. There's been a lot of speculation in the media about this, I just don't have anything more to say about it."

Whether Giuliani's statement tonight has anything to do with a conversation with Mueller's team (real or imagined) or if it is based on Rosenstein's statements from April, who knows. But Giuliani is clinging to it, hoping against hope that even if Trump is subpoenaed to testify in front a grand jury, that he can't be charged for any crimes.

Regardless of Giuliani's views, I am confident we will find out eventually whether Trump can be compelled to testify, and if he is found to be involved in a crime, whether he can or will be charged.

Update: It turns out Mueller never said a thing to Rudy about it. Apparently an assistant called him. Maybe. Or maybe he's just lying.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon