President Trump’s legal team is prepared to do anything it can to stop a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller that would require the president sit down for an interview in the Russia collusion investigation.
“We would move to quash the subpoena,” said Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer. “And we’re pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena.”
He added that Trump’s legal team is prepared to “argue it before the Supreme Court, if it ever got there.”
[Rudy Giuliani: No chance Mueller has anything on Trump]
Such a case in front of the Supreme Court would be unprecedented. Former President Bill Clinton was subpoenaed by Kenneth Starr to appear before a grand jury, but the subpoena was retracted after Clinton agreed to testify.
Mueller has been seeking to interview Trump for months in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s conduct related to the case. The two parties have gone back and forth in an attempt to outline terms for an interview, and Trump’s legal team wants to narrow the scope of questioning he would face.
Giuliani told the Washington Post that members of Trump’s team have “had discussions” with White House lawyer Emmet Flood who “would have a big role to play here and would assert presidential privilege.”
Flood had privately warned Trump and others about the unpredictability of such a fight in front of the Supreme Court, White House officials told the publication.
