Giuliani: Trump Won’t Talk Unless Mueller Talks First

Test ticker

Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

Dear Reader,

The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been of late. In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we take a level-headed look at the brutal economics of journalism, why investigative reporting like you get from us matters, and why we're optimistic we can grow our base of support in a big way—starting with hitting a huge $300,000 goal in just three weeks. Please learn more and donate if you can right now.

The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We need to raise $300,000 quickly, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been. Please learn more in "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," where we go into the brutal economics of journalism, and what makes Mother Jones unique and worth supporting if you can right now.

Ron Sachs/CNP via ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

I see that President Trump has a shiny new excuse for not talking to Robert Mueller:

President Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani said Tuesday that Trump will not agree to an interview with the special counsel until prosecutors allow the president’s legal team to review documents related to the FBI’s use of a source to interact with members of Trump’s 2016 campaign….Giuliani has previously said that Trump has done nothing improper and is eager to talk to Mueller. On Tuesday, though, he said, he doesn’t want to make a call on whether Trump will sit down for an interview “until they decide whether they are going to give us the documents or not.”

This is like a mafia don refusing to talk unless the FBI turns over everything they have on the informants who have already cooperated. This is, I’m pretty sure, not standard procedure.

At this point, I’m genuinely curious why Mueller keeps putting up with this. Why not just subpoena Trump to testify in front of a grand jury and be done with it? Is he trying to show that he made every possible effort to procure voluntary cooperation first? It’s been months now, and it’s pretty obvious that Trump is never going to agree to an interview. What’s the downside of a subpoena?