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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump said yesterday that he “would love to” be questioned under oath by Russia collusion prosecutor Robert Mueller, adding it could happen in the coming weeks.
Trump confirmed that his lawyers were in discussion with Mueller, who is leading the investigation into allegations of collusion between the US president’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, and also into accusations that Trump tried to obstruct his probe.
“I would love to do it,” Trump told reporters in the White House when asked about testifying.
“I would like to do it as soon as possible… subject to my lawyers and all of that.”
“I would do it under oath, absolutely,” he added.
Asked when an interview could happen, Trump replied that he didn’t know exactly.
“Yesterday, they were talking about two or three weeks,” he said.
It was the first time Trump said directly that he would cooperate with Mueller, whose investigation he has repeatedly dismissed as being based on “fake news”.
“There has been no collusion whatsoever. There is no obstruction whatsoever,” he said yesterday.
Executive privilege
But any interview of a US president in an investigation is fraught with issues of executive privilege – how much and in what context the US leader can be forced to disclose information.
In Trump’s case, it also raises deep concerns that his shoot-from-the-hip outspokenness could jeopardize his own legal position.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb later seemed to walk back Trump’s remarks, saying the president just meant that he was willing to meet, The New York Times reported.
“He’s ready to meet with them, but he’ll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,” the newspaper quoted Cobb as saying.
Cobb has repeatedly said that the president is willing to testify to Mueller’s investigation, and wants Mueller to wind up the case as early as possible.
Mueller is believed to be focusing on whether Trump illegally interfered with the Russia investigation, particularly when he fired FBI director James Comey last year.
Mueller, himself a former FBI director, is also examining the extent of communications between Russians and Trump campaign officials.
Those include a meeting in June 2016 between Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer who had allegedly offered them dirt on Trump’s election rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
He has already issued indictments for four people from the campaign, securing guilty pleas from two: former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, both for making false statements.
Circling the White House
Mueller’s investigators have been edging steadily closer to the White House, last week interviewing Attorney General Jeff Sessions – who was a top Trump campaign official and had three meetings in 2016 with Russia’s US ambassador, Sergei Kislyak.
He has interviewed Comey and other former officials, and is reportedly going to interview former White House strategist Steve Bannon in the coming days.
The form of a Mueller interview with the president still needs to be negotiated – whether it is face-to-face, or in writing, or a mix.
Trump told reporters yesterday he would listen to his lawyers’ advice on how to proceed. Asked if he thought Mueller would be fair, he replied:
We are going to find out… I hope so.
But the case might not be cleared easily. Trump’s repeated tweets attacking Comey and the FBI have added to suspicions that he has sought to stymie the Mueller investigation.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Trump had pressed Comey’s temporary replacement, FBI deputy director and Comey loyalist Andrew McCabe, to tell him who he voted for in the 2016 election.
Since then, Trump has pressured the current FBI chief, Christopher Wray, to fire McCabe.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders dismissed The Post’s report on the Trump-McCabe exchange by saying she doubts “any person in America” cares about it.
That sparked a mass rebuttal on Twitter by Trump critics declaring they do care, using the hashtag #onewhodoes.
The US president is travelling to Davos this today to the World Economic Forum.
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The Irish banks are the problem; they are not part of the solution.
The Irish banks, when unleashed on defaulting home mortgagors, will cause pandemonium and will trigger even greater holes in their capital adequacy. The Irish banks are actually insolvent. Some buy to let lending on property is just a superficial pretence that they are back in business.
The elephant in the room is that the Irish banks are bust, insolvent, broken, wrecked and no one wants to recognise that hard reality.
The true extent of mortgage debt default has not yet been properly accounted for by the Banks.
One magazine broadly agrees with your analysis.
http://moneyweek.com/money-morning-ireland-irish-economy-property-and-stocks-60900/
one room to the other room lucky to have the house ..who do you think you are codding Mr Kenny
The emperor has no clothes. Today does not change our dismal economic reality. Combined public and household debt is unsustainable. The burden of debt is too great for Ireland.
The reality is that Ireland is a failed economic state and a steadily failing economy. We can deny that reality for a while but reality will will come knocking on the door.
Platitudes about recovering part of our sovereignty are meaningless and trite.
The article above is a much needed reality check but people will not listen to that reality.
The dismal legacy of he false boom years is a permanent yoke on the necs of the Irish people who, according to Enda Kenny, have only themselves to blame.
The Banks will continue to pursue strategies which are mildly beneficial to the banks but deeply damaging to a failing economy. The mortgage impairment crisis in 2014 and 2015 will be the final nail in the coffin. There is no escaping our fate. The centre cannot hold.
Damien is right to point out the myth that banks have much interest in the real economy of businesses, employment and production of goods and services.
The real economy is merely a sideline that gains them entry to the real game of rent extraction in partnership with the rich, plus, recently, the marvellous public ‘insurance’ that ensures any losses are passed on to ordinary citizens or ‘socialised’.
Globally, this ‘laissez faire’ model has been promoted thru’ deregulation over decades.
Banks have become funds for the purchase of existing assets to be rented out at excessive profit and/or capital gains, with a banking licence tacked on.
Integration with the payments system and various cross connected derivative bets ensure that any failure topples them all in a domino effect, so that governments are obliged to cover any losses they make. This construction was no accident, rather quite deliberate.
And absolutely nothing has been done about it by the political classes. In fact, these ‘systemically’ important ‘too big to fail’ banks are now bigger than ever.
The payments system banking of the high street needs to be separated, as it was following the 1929 crash, from the casino and ‘derivative’ bet banking operations, as a minimum.
But it would appear that the banking lobby has already effectively bought politics and most of the public service advisers, media and mainstream academe.
Mike Hall, well and truly said.
DEFAULT THE ONLY OPTION
So Damien you are basically saying young Irish Citizens were screwed by developers in the noughties, screwed by the Troika for the past three years, and are going to be screwed by bankers and vulture capitalists for the rest of there lives. How did we let this happen under our noses and did nothing?
Welcome to Ireland David. The elite in this country screw it up time and time again. Generation after generation. Just watch reeling in the years, its the same story decade after decade. The PAYE worker foots the bill, and theres no accountability for those who screw it up.
The PAYE will pay.
The law should be set up in away that if the borrower can’t service the loan he just has to hand back the house ,the bank made a decision when they loan the money that the value was in it ,I know it Is not a simple as it sound,s but some mechanism could be worked out ,it would make them more cautious ,it would alter the power they have and stop the big jump in value and it would also control the house selling agents that were riding the wave .
Actually it is as simple as it sounds and works in places such as the US. There are several advantages to the system one of which is that banks that push up a property bubble by imprudent lending pay the cost when mortgages default and they can’t just hound the borrowers forever.
Foreclosure is the name of that system but now it is too late for that solution. The Irish Banks will find that they can’t get blood out of a stillness.
It was the lending policies of the Banks which caused the massive asset bubble. Now they will try to get their pound of flesh. They will fail. The money is not there. The reality is that any home possessions will simply crystallise large losses.
The banks will end up carrying out massive write downs but only after they have caused untold misery.
The situation is totally unsustainable but we comfort ourselves with the delusion that we have successfully exited the bail out.
At least we no longer have to hear commentators describe the Irish electorate as the most intelligent and sophisticated in the world. This electorate putFianna Fáil coalitions into government three times in a row. Madness.
A property obsessed nation followed its love affair with property like a moth to a flame.
Property has been our destruction hastened by plentiful cheap euros.
The Baron of Ballsbridge showed us the madness at work but he was just holding up a mirror to the rest of us.
Ronan Lyons explains here the stimulus for a “no brainer” speculative culture.
http://www.ronanlyons.com/2009/06/12/property-a-shining-example-of-never-a-better-time-to-save/
Most newspapers want this reality hidden from us so their beloved coalition can boast about “regaining sovereignty”
“A Nation once again” – me hole.
It is rather depressing reading the above and the comments. What a mess this country is. I think the saddest thing is the meek reaction of the people. Where is our fight or sense of pride? Why are we not standing up for ourselves.
I guess the reality is that the majority are comfortable enough – in jobs and without huge debts – and not overly willing to see any real change. For the minority who are unemployed or underemployed it is a case of suck it up.
What hope is there for young people who want to get decent employment, start a family and have a home? People are simply locked out with no opportunity. What a legacy has been left.
Where do you arrive at the figure of 52% of pay deducted in Paye/Prsi & Usc? If a Single person is on €33k, they pay €7900 in the three taxes. That works out at 23.8%. A long way off 52%
Good analysis! Question is: what happens next? It doesn’t need an accountant to tell you Ireland is enslaved forever.
If you haven’t seen the Oscar-winning documentary ‘Inside Job’ already I recommend you do now.
Only the little people get hurt, only the little people. We need an Oliver Cromwell to deal with this.
politican vs banker = golf buddies
Great article – a day after a TD suggest Nama are selling off greatly reduced properties to developers. Will we ever be able to stop the money junkies ie bankers, politicians, charity bosses, developers etc? They can’t wait to get their next fix. Like most junkies the price is paid for their addiction by others. It won’t stop until somebody kicks them out of their homes and their comfortable jobs.
have your say