According to a lawyer who formerly had a Watergate scandal client, President Donald Trump will likely face increased pressure to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller as the 2018 midterm elections are approaching, but he should not succumb to that pressure.
Andrew Hall, who served more than 40 years ago during President Richard Nixon’s corruption scandal, said he would advise Trump not to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. He further noted that the pressure on the President will probably increase by the end of the summer, only months before the midterm elections in November.
“I think walking into the midterms, if he doesn’t clean up his act he’s going to get clobbered politically, and what he does to save himself politically will be exactly the opposite of what he needs to do to do the right thing legally,” Hall said, according to Newsweek.
He also pointed out that it would be difficult to take on a client like Trump as an attorney for the President would have to remove himself or herself as the President’s representative if they know Trump could perjure himself before special counsel investigators.
“It’s not a gray area. They can’t facilitate it. So let’s assume that he says something that they know to be untrue, they’ve got to disassociate themselves with that,” Hall said, adding that any attorney representing the President risks losing their license if they know he’s about to give false testimony. “It’s very serious. It’s not unusual to be in a situation where suddenly your client says something that is not true. If you can’t avoid it you have to withdraw,” Hall added.
While President Trump has said he would be “happy” to sit for an interview with Mueller’s investigators, his attorneys have seemed reluctant to advise it considering Trump’s proneness to go off script. Trump ally Roger Stone has similarly advised against it, calling the possible meeting a “perjury trap.”
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