On Monday evening the New York Times reported on leaked questions Mueller wants to ask the President directly. Beyond the nature of the questions themselves, we learn that when Dowd received the questions from Muellers’ team it cemented his opinion that Trump should not sit for an interview, and when Trump pushed ahead with plans to do just that, he resigned. Here is a summary.
Ben Wittes warns us that these are Trump’s lawyers’ interpretation of the questions–not the actual questions. It is not known who leaked them, except that whoever did was not a member of Trump’s legal team.
Here is Wittes on how Mueller and Trump’s lawyers are engaging in a game of chicken over the interview. It’s a useful primer in reading the tea leaves of the investigation. For Mueller, the interview may be a need-to-have or a nice-to-have depending on the strength or weakness of his evidence.
Freedom Caucus congressmen are leaking articles of impeachment against Rosenstein, prompting him to say publicly that the Justice Department “will not be extorted.” Trump is siding with Congress in the battle against Justice in the Russia investigation.
Rudy Giuliani went on Hannity and attempted to put an end to the Clifford case by admitting that Trump reimbursed Cohen his $130,000, therefore it cannot be a campaign finance violation. Problem is that Trump has already said he did not know about the payments; and Trump’s other lawyers and staff did not know Giuliani was going to say this on TV, and in facts did not know the payments had been made.
By Friday it seems clear there was no master strategy in Giuliani’s statements. Trump said he did not have his facts straight, one day after corroborating his statements in a tweet.
Trump’s former doctor admitted this week that the letter attesting to Trump’s health during the campaign was dictated by Trump, and that Trump’s private security detail raided his office to take all of Trump’s medical records just weeks after Trump took office.
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Trump’s Job Approval Rating: 42.1%