"The Mob takes the 5th. If you're innocent why you taking the 5th Amendment?" This video above will be in a Trump memorial "presidential" library and museum some day. (Did I ever tell you I urinated on Nixon's grave at his presidential library and museum in Yorba Linda? I might have just spit; I can't remember.) Anyway, let me stay on track. We'll save urinating on Trump for other posts; this one's about Putin-Gate and the 5th Amendment-- which Giuliani told George Stephanopoulos Trumpanzee will likely be taking. (He said he can't rule it out... in Trump speak: "get ready.") The completely senile Giuliani was on This Week this morning... without a muzzle or minder.
Giuliani said to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on This Week Sunday, "How could I be confident" that president won't take the Fifth Amendment. The former New York City mayor also commented on the possibility of Trump getting subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify. "We don't have to" comply with a subpoena, he said."They don't have a case on collusion, they don't have obstruction... I'm going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart did?" Giuliani said.Faced with the possibility of a subpoena to testify in front of Mueller, Giuliani said "we don't have to, he's the president of the United States-- we can assert privilege other presidents have."Giuliani made clear he does not want the president to sit down with Mueller. "Not after the way they've acted," Giuliani said. "I came into this case with a desire to do that and they just keep convincing me not to do it."President Trump said on Friday he would "love to speak" to special counsel Robert Mueller, but said he'd only do it on the condition he is "treated fairly,""I have a client who wants to testify," Giuliani said. "I hope we get a chance to tell him the risk he's be taking. So he may testify and we may actually work things out with Bob Mueller."
And, yesterday Mark Berman of the Washington Post reported that Giuliani hadn't yet finished sticking his foot in his mouth-- and up Trumpanzee's ass. Not a big surprise, but who says this on TV? Trump fixer Michael Cohen may have paid off other prostitutes Trump banged over the years. When Stephanopoulos asked him about it, super-lawyer said "I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes." After the show, Trump took him out golfing-- perhaps to discuss the meaning and the various implications of the word "necessary."Remember how Trump dictated the insane state of his health record to Dr. Bornstein? Sounds like he's dictating his crackpot legal strategy to Giuliani. As Jonathan Karl explained today-- that strategy has always worked well for Señor T in the past: "fight, delay, vilify." And now that he's gotten rid of the 3rd rate legal team and replaced them with a 5th rate legal team... what's to stop him? The legal strategy," wrote Karl, "dovetails with the Trump team's political strategy: rallying the base with fear and loathing of the special counsel as a Democratic plot to nullify the 2016 presidential election. 'The only date that matters is November 6,' a Trump loyalist deeply involved in both the legal and political efforts tells me, referring to the 2018 midterms."
The Trump team had been pushing for a quick resolution of the special counsel's investigation. Now they want to draw it out, attacking the investigating as a stalking horse for Democratic efforts to impeach the president."The only thing that gets the base out is fear of impeachment," the Trump loyalist says. "You aren't going to do that with tax cuts and deregulation."With Emmet Flood replacing Ty Cobb, the legal team won't just end the strategy of cooperation with Mueller, they'll try to reverse it.Among the steps the Trump team is considering, I am told, is to retroactively exert executive privilege to attempt to prevent the special counsel from using things they already have: testimony from key aides like White House Counsel Don McGahn and some of the million pages of White House documents the Trump team has turned over."Yes, you are going to lose," a source advocating this move tells me, but the battle would have to go the courts and it will take time, delaying Mueller's work.As a corollary: Don't expect Trump to agree to an interview with Mueller, but look for him to draw out negotiations on an interview as long as possible.Ironically, the merging of the legal and political strategies likely means job security for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller. If vilifying the special counsel is central to your election strategy, how can you fire him?For all the talk of the president's anger at all this, the source I talked to says he relishes this fight."Donald Trump is in a corner and the whole world is against him," the source told me. "He loves it."If there were any question about that, the president said it himself Friday speaking to the NRA after yet again calling Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt.""Let me tell you, folks, we're all fighting battles, but I love fighting these battles."
Lucky he's in a job with nothing else to do and no other important responsibilities. Maybe his golf game will suffer?