USA TODAY International Edition
Our view: Trump says he wants to talk. Well, it’s Mueller time.
For more than six months, Americans have endured the tedious equivalent of waiting for the cable guy to show up — biding their time until President Donald Trump does or does not deign to answer questions from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Enough already. It’s time to bring down the curtain on this endless “will he or won’t he” drama.
In the latest act of this Kabuki-onthe-Potomac theater (featuring a lot of performance, with nothing much happening), Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told The Washington Post that “we have a real reluctance about allowing any questions about obstruction” of justice.
Really? Since when do the subjects of an investigation get to “allow” the questions?
Giuliani went on to say that he plans to “continue the negotiations” and that Trump “still hasn’t made a decision.”
Remember, this is the same president who at various times has said that he’s “eager” and “looking forward” to talk to Mueller, the former FBI chief who’s investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign. “Nobody wants to speak more than me,” Trump told reporters in May.
He sure has a funny way of showing it. Instead, there has been stalling and more stalling amid a backdrop of Twitter-carping about Mueller and his “rigged witch hunt.” The special counsel could end the back-and-forth with a subpoena aimed at forcing Trump to testify before a grand jury, and many legal experts believe that Mueller would succeed.
Mueller has appeared willing to allow the president every chance to voluntarily answer questions and avoid a drawn-out legal fight over a subpoena that could delay the investigation for months. Mueller’s team has gone so far as to provide Trump’s lawyers with a list of about 50 likely questions.
Why, then, doesn’t Trump just answer them?
The main reason his lawyers are said to oppose any meeting is that Trump — famous for playing fast and loose with the facts — might lie his way into a perjury trap. Four people have already pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators. But Trump did dozens of depositions during his days in real estate and ought to be capable of telling the truth if, as he says, he has nothing to hide.
One other argument thrown up by Trump’s lawyers, during his North Korean gambit with dictator Kim Jong Un, was that the president was just too darned busy with the nation’s business to answer questions. That was then. Most days recently, the president has plenty of so-called executive time on his schedule.
Right now, for example, Trump is on an 11-day “working vacation” at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The only appointment on Tuesday’s calendar was a dinner with business leaders.
That would seem to leave plenty of time to answer questions. Maybe the start of the interview could be scheduled cable-style: Between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Or between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Pick a window. Any window. Just do it.