By Jonathan Chait
Daily Intelligencer
March 12, 2018
A recent spate of leaks appears to be telling us something about Donald Trump’s legal team. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s lawyers were considering an audacious demand of Robert Mueller. In return for granting Mueller an interview with Trump, they would require he commit to end his investigation of the Russia scandal within 60 days. Such a deadline would, among other things, allow witnesses with potentially incriminating information to run out the clock without giving anything up to the prosecution. There is zero chance Mueller would ever agree to it.
This weekend, BuzzFeed reported that Trump’s lawyers are considering a legal challenge to block 60 Minutes from airing its interview with Stormy Daniels. This legal maneuver is even less likely to succeed than the other one. The pretext for the challenge is the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed with Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen. But 60 Minutes was not a party to that deal.