Rudy Giuliani just walked Donald Trump right into the perjury trap
Rudy Giuliani keeps complaining that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is trying to lead Donald Trump into a “perjury trap” by asking him to sit down for an interview about his various criminal scandals. The trouble with that argument is that a perjury trap generally requires, well, perjury. Giuliani is basically admitting that he expects Trump to lie during any such interview. Now Rudy has made it even worse by walking Trump directly into such a trap.
Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly signaled that he’d only advise Donald Trump to sit down for an interview if Robert Mueller agreed to not to ask questions about obstruction of justice. It’s not difficult to figure out why. Trump committed obstruction while speaking with former FBI Director James Comey, who took detailed contemporaneous notes about those discussions, which make for compelling evidence.
Donald Trump also conspired to commit obstruction with at least half a dozen members of his White House staff, many of whom have already been interviewed Mueller, and at least some of whom have likely confessed the truth. In other words, if Trump goes into the interview and lies about obstruction, Mueller will have him nailed for lying to a federal investigator, which is a felony in the court of law, and a bodyblow in the court of public opinion. So naturally, Rudy just made that no-win scenario even worse for Trump.
On Sunday morning, Rudy Giuliani appeared on CNN and insisted that Donald Trump never discussed the criminal case against Michael Flynn with James Comey. This came two months after Rudy admitted on ABC News that Trump did discuss the matter with Comey. Now that Trump’s lawyer has publicly staked Trump to both positions, it makes it easier for Robert Mueller to make the argument that he needs to interview Trump directly in order to get the real story. If Mueller ends up subpoenaing Trump, this could help solidify his argument to the judge that Trump’s testimony is indeed necessary.
