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Conservatives and liberals agree Trump at risk of indictment
His prosecution almost certainly would not happen however, until after he leaves office.

Zack Ford

Dec 9, 2018, 1:07 pm

Friday’s document dump from the Mueller investigation and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has brought conservatives and liberals together in a surprising way. They all agree that President Trump — “Individual 1” — could be indicted for federal crimes.

In a lengthy column for Fox News, National Review columnist Andrew McCarthy shared his belief this weekend that Trump could be indicted “on a charge of violating federal campaign finance laws” for directing Michael Cohen to make payments to silence Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels during the election.

While McCarthy downplayed the significance of such charges and offered equivocations with comparisons to charges President Obama faced, he nevertheless sussed out that there are far too many indications that Trump is the target of these investigations.

“The fact that Trump could have made the payment himself without violating the law does not excuse allegedly causing Cohen to violate the law,” McCarthy wrote. “The point for this day is that the Cohen case in New York City is not about Cohen. The president is in peril of being charged.”

Speaking to CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday morning, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) agreed, going as far as to say that Trump “may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.”

Schiff even went as far as noting that whoever succeeds Trump as president may have to face the decision as to whether to then pardon Trump — as President Ford did President Nixon.

Both Schiff and McCarthy admit that these charges would not be filed until Trump is out of office. That is certainly true of the federal charges alluded to in Robert Mueller’s documents, because the Justice Department does not indict sitting presidents. It’s less clear, however, if anything prevents the SDNY from bringing state charges.

That means Trump would not be indicted until January 20, 2021 or January 20, 2025, depending on whether or not he wins reelection. There is, of course, the possibility of that date changing if Congress were to impeach Trump on the basis of the offenses laid out by these investigations.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, did not hold back Sunday on describing the allegations in the latest documents as “impeachable offenses.” While he left open the question of whether Trump’s offenses might be “important” enough to justify impeachment, he nevertheless told CNN that they were grounds for impeachment because “they were committed in service of fraudulently obtaining the office.”

Removing the president through impeachment requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate, which is majority Republican and unlikely to support such a vote. As ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser explained Saturday, the country’s founding fathers “did not anticipate a situation where a political party would organize to protect its criminal leader.”

Still, the totality of what these investigations have uncovered remains unknown, and there appears to be no disagreement that they have already implicated Trump in violating federal law. That means could be a question not of “if” Trump is indicted, but “when.”

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12/15/2018 12:36 am ET

Robert Mueller Is Pressing To Interview Trump After President’s Written Answers: CNN

“The reality is everybody knows Trump can’t talk without lying,” says Van Jones on CNN.

By Mary Papenfuss

Just weeks after President Donald Trump wrote out the answers to a series of questions from Robert Mueller, the special counsel is pressing to interview the president face to face, sources have told CNN.

“Nothing has changed in that sense from the first day,” one source said.

And the Trump camp is resisting.

In one area of interest, Mueller wants to get to Trump’s “state of mind” regarding possible obstruction of justice in the investigation into any Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to manipulate the U.S. presidential election, a source told CNN.

After months of wrangling, Mueller finally agreed in September to allow Trump to write out answers to his questions. Mueller did not say, however, he was forfeiting any future demand for an interview.

Trump provided the answers shortly before Thanksgiving. The questions dealt only with possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

Trump’s lawyers are believed to be terrified that the president wouldn’t be able to not grandstand — and lie — in a Mueller interview while Trump is under oath, potentially opening him up to perjury charges.

In 2007, Trump was caught lying 30 times during a deposition that was part of his lawsuit against Tim O’Brien, author of the book Trump Nation. Trump lost.

According to Bob Woodward’s book Fear: Trump in the White House, Trump’s former personal lawyer John Dowd frequently pleaded with the president not to agree to be interviewed by Mueller. If he did sit down with Mueller, Dowd warned Trump, he would probably be charged with perjury and end up in an “orange jumpsuit,” Woodward wrote.

“I’ll be a real good witness,” the president insisted.

“You are not a good witness,” Dowd told Trump. Dowd, who has denied Woodward’s account, resigned shortly after that reported conversation in March of this year.

Van Jones, former special adviser to President Barack Obama, said Friday on CNN that the “reality is everybody knows that Trump can’t talk without lying. His lawyers are terrified that if he opens his mouth, he cannot tell the truth and would wind up going to jail.”

Nevertheless, Jones said, “Mueller is not going to let this go.”