Special Counsel Robert Mueller has not indicated what his next move may be when it comes to pushing for an interview with the president, but Rudy Giuliani says the president's legal team is ready to fight a subpoena and already has drafted a rebuttal.
“We would move to quash the subpoena,” Giuliani said in an interview. “And we’re pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena.”
Giuliani added that Trump’s attorneys are ready to “argue it before the Supreme Court, if it ever got there.”
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Giuliani said the Trump legal team, which briefed Trump last week, is mapping out a subpoena battle that could stretch on for months.
“Even if we responded in 10 days to a subpoena, it would have to be decided by a district court judge, and you could appeal it in a circuit court, and then you argue it before the Supreme Court, if it ever got there.”
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“It’s been a week, and we haven’t heard anything,” Giuliani said. “Plan A is we somehow work out the questioning. Plan B is we don’t and they subpoena. Plan C is they file the report and don’t issue a subpoena.”
Giuliani said the outcome of the [Paul] Manafort trial could be a variable in the public perception of Mueller’s investigation: “[Mueller’s team] thinks they’re empowered if they win and defeated if they lose.”
When asked whether Trump was considering a pardon for Manafort, Giuliani said: “My position has been, ‘I don’t want to be part of the pardon process.’ But my advice is, ‘You shouldn’t pardon anyone during the investigation or else you create a confusing situation.’ He’s bought into that.”
Giuliani, however, is not the most credible source on matters of the Russia investigation, and it is unclear how much he truly knows about what the president's other lawyers believe when it comes to launching a legal fight over subpoena power.
White House officials have privately said [Emmet T. Flood, a White House lawyer working on issues related to the federal investigation] has cautioned Trump and others about the unpredictability of a subpoena fight that could be decided by the Supreme Court. Such a case would be unprecedented.
Giuliani also mentioned the president's team is ready should federal investigators lose patience and write up their obstruction of justice findings without an interview.
“There is always the chance that if they get fed up with our conditions, they just file their report as is,” Giuliani said. “We’re preparing a report to respond to that, should that be filed,” along with the response to a subpoena.
Trump’s lawyers prepare to fight subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court (WaPo)