But legal experts say a White House effort to block the special counsel from speaking to Congress would lead to ‘uncharted waters.’
When President Donald Trump contradicted his own attorney general and declared on Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller “should not testify” before Congress, he caught his inner circle by surprise.
A day later, more than a dozen people from Trump’s close orbit downplayed in interviews the prospect that the president’s weekend tweet about Mueller should be taken as an official warning.
Trump does not actually intend to assert executive privilege and block the special counsel from testifying as soon as next week, they said, before the one House committee with the power to begin impeachment proceedings against the president.
Like so many other controversies ignited by Trump’s social media feed, this one may be more bluster than live-wire legal showdown.
“He is not signaling anything other than, as an innocent man so found by Mr. Mueller, he just wants this over. He’d like to govern. That’s all he’s saying,” Joe diGenova, an informal Trump legal adviser, told POLITICO.
The Trump White House all but ignored the tweet, which raised Democratic hackles and contradicted the president’s own statement on Friday that the decision was up to Attorney General William Barr.
One White House aide argued that Trump had done nothing more than express a personal view. “Where did he say he would block [Mueller] from testifying? I know that’s what the media said — but where did he say it?” the aide told POLITICO.
“Bob Mueller should not testify,” Trump’s Sunday afternoon tweet declared. “No redos for the Dems!”
Rudy Giuliani, a Trump personal attorney, said he hadn’t spoken to his client about the subject but downplayed the idea that Trump had foreshadowed a dramatic clash with Congress. “I think I’d have to hear the words ‘We’re invoking executive privilege’ to know they’ve come to that conclusion,” Giuliani said in an interview.
Others around the president explained that Trump is still not foreclosing an option to fight back against House investigators, and that he may yet invoke an executive privilege claim to halt potential testimony by Mueller or his deputies. A similar clash could play out as House Judiciary Committee Democrats press for compliance by Tuesday with their subpoena seeking documents from former Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn, whose account of potential obstruction of justice by the president litter Mueller’s report. The Democrats’ subpoena also seeks McGahn’s testimony by May 21.
Legal experts said that a direct order from Trump to stifle Mueller’s testimony could trigger a battle over executive privilege as consequential as it is unpredictable.
“We are in uncharted waters here,” said Greg Brower, the former head of the FBI’s congressional affairs office.
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Few in Trump’s legal orbit taking seriously his demand that Mueller not testify, via @dsamuelsohn @dlippman and me – https://t.co/FNmH2Ccllo
— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) May 6, 2019
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