Attorney Solomon Wisenberg said “it doesn’t look like” special counsel Robert Mueller and his team members “have anything on” President Donald Trump and allegations of collusion with the Russians.
He made his remarks during an interview Wednesday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
Mueller reportedly told Trump’s attorneys that the president isn’t a criminal target in the investigation into whether the Russians colluded with the Trump campaign to throw the 2016 presidential election in his favor, The Washington Post first reported Tuesday.
Although Mueller has been investigating the allegations for almost 11 months and the FBI had been investigating for months before Mueller’s appointment, Wisenberg noted that no known evidence has yet surfaced tying Trump to Russian collusion.
“It doesn’t look like they have anything on President Trump,” Wisenberg, the deputy independent counsel for Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater-Lewinsky investigation surrounding former President Bill Clinton, told Brian Kilmeade, who was subbing for host Laura Ingraham.
Fox News contributor and Washington Examiner columnist Byron York shared Wisenberg’s views, saying, “What I think it does say is that Mueller has been investigating since last May, the FBI before that, since July of 2016. And with all that investigation, they’re saying that they do not have enough evidence to make the president a target of the investigation.”
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Many liberals, however, have held out hope that Mueller would charge Trump with obstructing justice for firing former FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 when he was heading the investigation into Russian collusion. Although Mueller reportedly doesn’t view Trump as a criminal target in his investigation, he reportedly still hopes to ascertain whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.
“I don’t think there’s going to be an obstruction [of justice] indictment, and I don’t think there’s going to be a criminal collusion indictment,” Wisenberg said. “And by the way, I don’t believe I would ever advise any client in President Trump’s position to go in for that interview. If you’re a subject, you’re still in very serious danger.”
Although Trump has said that he wishes to speak with Mueller and clear his name, the president’s legal team was divided over the issue. Former Trump attorney John Dowd resigned on March 22 after disagreeing with the president about his legal strategy.
“There are some who believe the president really will not have a reason to say why he should not talk to [the Mueller team],” York said. “On the other hand, there are others who look at news like this today and think the Mueller team is trying to get the president to relax and think everything will be all right, and then have the interview and then perhaps charge him with making false statements.”
York noting that making false statements to investigators is “the main charge” that Mueller has slapped against former Trump associates during his investigation, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate, Rick Gates.
Related: There’s ‘Smoke’ and ‘Fire’ in Probing Clinton for Collusion, Rep. Duffy Says
Wisenberg also reacted to the news that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote an Aug. 2, 2017, memo to Mueller defining the scope of his probe — and giving him the green light for investigating Manafort, his work with the Ukrainian government, and his ties to Russian officials. This memo was delivered after the FBI raided Manafort’s house in late July.
“Remember also that Mueller has the authority to look at anything that he discovers or [that] arises during the investigation if he gets authorization,” Wisenberg said. “But here’s the key thing that people are overlooking, I think, is that Comey is the person that was already looking at this.”
“And that’s the question you need to ask — Jim Comey, you’re being very aggressive back here in looking at an old investigation involving money from a Ukrainian dictator. Boy, you’re sure aggressive in this investigation. Why weren’t you so aggressive in the email investigation?” Wisenberg continued, referring to the investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct official business as secretary of state.
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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