Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
"Evidentiary developments may have moved the president from being a subject to being a target." [View all]
Why hasn't Robert Mueller subpoenaed Trump? Three theories about the Russia investigation
There are several reasons why Mueller may decide to forgo a presidential grand jury subpoena altogether.
by Glenn Kirschner / Jul.19.2018 / 10:44 AM ET
One might ask, why doesn’t Mueller just subpoena the president to force him to tell the grand jury his side of the story on a variety of topics, including why he fired former FBI Director James Comey and why he participated in drafting an inaccurate narrative about the Trump Tower meeting between members of his campaign and Russian representatives. My 30 years of experience as a federal prosecutor tell me that there are at least three possible reasons why Mueller may decide to forgo a presidential grand jury subpoena altogether.
First, Mueller may have gathered so much evidence that he can reach informed conclusions about how to proceed without securing the president’s testimony. Given that prosecutors invariably take a “more is more” approach to developing evidence, I think this possibility is less than likely.
Second, given that the president’s lawyers have argued (incorrectly, in my opinion) that a sitting president cannot be subpoenaed to the grand jury, it may be that Mueller wants to avoid the protracted litigation that would erupt concerning the legality/enforceability of such a subpoena. Although this is a distinct possibility, I strongly suspect that Mueller is prepared to take as much time as needed to conduct a full investigation. Accordingly, the delay occasioned by having to fight a legal battle over a presidential grand jury subpoena is probably not driving his decisions.
The third possibility — and one that I suggest is growing more likely by the day — is that evidentiary developments in the investigation may have moved the president from being a “subject” of the investigation to being a “target.” If this is the case, then Department of Justice policies would strongly argue against using a grand jury subpoena to compel the president to testify.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-hasn-t-robert-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-three-theories-about-ncna892591
There are several reasons why Mueller may decide to forgo a presidential grand jury subpoena altogether.
by Glenn Kirschner / Jul.19.2018 / 10:44 AM ET
One might ask, why doesn’t Mueller just subpoena the president to force him to tell the grand jury his side of the story on a variety of topics, including why he fired former FBI Director James Comey and why he participated in drafting an inaccurate narrative about the Trump Tower meeting between members of his campaign and Russian representatives. My 30 years of experience as a federal prosecutor tell me that there are at least three possible reasons why Mueller may decide to forgo a presidential grand jury subpoena altogether.
First, Mueller may have gathered so much evidence that he can reach informed conclusions about how to proceed without securing the president’s testimony. Given that prosecutors invariably take a “more is more” approach to developing evidence, I think this possibility is less than likely.
Second, given that the president’s lawyers have argued (incorrectly, in my opinion) that a sitting president cannot be subpoenaed to the grand jury, it may be that Mueller wants to avoid the protracted litigation that would erupt concerning the legality/enforceability of such a subpoena. Although this is a distinct possibility, I strongly suspect that Mueller is prepared to take as much time as needed to conduct a full investigation. Accordingly, the delay occasioned by having to fight a legal battle over a presidential grand jury subpoena is probably not driving his decisions.
The third possibility — and one that I suggest is growing more likely by the day — is that evidentiary developments in the investigation may have moved the president from being a “subject” of the investigation to being a “target.” If this is the case, then Department of Justice policies would strongly argue against using a grand jury subpoena to compel the president to testify.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-hasn-t-robert-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-three-theories-about-ncna892591
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
