How Trump’s legal strategy on the Russia investigation paid off
‘This is absolutely fantastic,’ Giuliani said minutes after Barr issued the findings. ‘It’s better than I expected’
Washington — When US attorney-general William Barr sent MPs a summary of the key findings in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, members of President Donald Trump’s legal team were gathered in an office near the US Capitol. They soon had reason to celebrate on Sunday, perhaps helped by a pivotal strategic decision. Mueller had spent 22 months investigating whether Trump or his aides conspired with Russia during the 2016 election, interviewing 500 witnesses. The Republican president’s lawyers made sure he was not among them. The strategy paid off, insulating Trump from the legal jeopardy presented by a sit-down interview with the special counsel’s team — an interview that Trump had said publicly he wanted to do. There was even a tentative date for the interview — January 27 2018 — though one of Trump’s lawyers told Reuters he never intended to make the president available to Mueller. And Mueller never issued a subpoena demanding testimony. They agreed instead to ha...
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