NBC News also reported that Mueller appears interested in whether Trump may have instructed Flynn to tell those lies to the FBI. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is now cooperating with Mueller. And so, Mueller would likely ask Trump if he directed Flynn to lie to the FBI or was aware of those lies.
[Trump on the stand: The greatest political and legal peril he’s ever faced]
“The questions about Flynn will include, of course, the key issue of what the President knew about the Flynn lie and when he knew it,” Bob Bauer, the former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, emailed me today. “The ‘what’ question will go into the reasons why Flynn would lie, including any direction from the president or belief that Flynn may have had that he was expected to lie.”
It will be perilous terrain for Trump to face tough questioning about obstruction of justice. That’s because a lot turns on Trump’s motives for his efforts to impede the FBI’s investigation into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russian sabotage of our democracy: whether they were undertaken with “corrupt intent,” which the law defines as acting “with an improper purpose.”
And so, Trump would presumably be questioned about his intent and purpose in undertaking the following actions, which have been unearthed by dogged reporting: Directing his White House counsel to urge his attorney general not to recuse himself so that he could continue to protect Trump from the probe. Demanding Comey’s loyalty and pressing him to drop the probe into Flynn. Firing Comey when that loyalty was not forthcoming. Writing an unsent letter firing Comey that reportedly mentioned the Russia probe in the first sentence, then demanding a memo from the deputy attorney general that cited Comey’s treatment of Hillary Clinton’s emails, which Trump cited as a pretext for the firing before admitting that the Russia probe was, indeed, the motivation, something he boasted about to Russian visitors.
[How Mueller’s potential questioning of Trump is likely to play out]
Indeed, Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago, points out that this is dangerous for Trump because he has already conceded his reason for firing Comey. “A principal challenge in many obstruction prosecutions is proof of motive,” Hemel emailed, adding that Trump’s “public and largely incriminating statements about why he fired Comey” will mean that “proving his purpose will be easier here than in most cases.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...ump-about-obstruction/?utm_term=.2818f297db16
[Trump on the stand: The greatest political and legal peril he’s ever faced]
“The questions about Flynn will include, of course, the key issue of what the President knew about the Flynn lie and when he knew it,” Bob Bauer, the former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, emailed me today. “The ‘what’ question will go into the reasons why Flynn would lie, including any direction from the president or belief that Flynn may have had that he was expected to lie.”
It will be perilous terrain for Trump to face tough questioning about obstruction of justice. That’s because a lot turns on Trump’s motives for his efforts to impede the FBI’s investigation into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russian sabotage of our democracy: whether they were undertaken with “corrupt intent,” which the law defines as acting “with an improper purpose.”
And so, Trump would presumably be questioned about his intent and purpose in undertaking the following actions, which have been unearthed by dogged reporting: Directing his White House counsel to urge his attorney general not to recuse himself so that he could continue to protect Trump from the probe. Demanding Comey’s loyalty and pressing him to drop the probe into Flynn. Firing Comey when that loyalty was not forthcoming. Writing an unsent letter firing Comey that reportedly mentioned the Russia probe in the first sentence, then demanding a memo from the deputy attorney general that cited Comey’s treatment of Hillary Clinton’s emails, which Trump cited as a pretext for the firing before admitting that the Russia probe was, indeed, the motivation, something he boasted about to Russian visitors.
[How Mueller’s potential questioning of Trump is likely to play out]
Indeed, Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago, points out that this is dangerous for Trump because he has already conceded his reason for firing Comey. “A principal challenge in many obstruction prosecutions is proof of motive,” Hemel emailed, adding that Trump’s “public and largely incriminating statements about why he fired Comey” will mean that “proving his purpose will be easier here than in most cases.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...ump-about-obstruction/?utm_term=.2818f297db16