Trump's Not Afraid of Lying to Mueller. Just Telling the Truth
Week 64: Trump’s Not Afraid of Lying to Mueller. Just Telling the Truth.
His attorneys claim the special counsel is laying a 'perjury trap,' but telling untruths has never bothered the president as much as revealing actual facts.
By JACK SHAFER August 11, 2018
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/11/trump-mueller-interview-perjury-truth-219350
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Trump wasn’t entirely truthful in the deposition. You’d be disappointed if he had been, right? According to O’Brien, he lied about his business relationships with organized crime figures. But setting that fib aside for a moment, Trump isn’t so much afraid of being caught lying to Mueller’s investigation and prosecuted for perjury. Having grown accustomed over his long career of telling a dozen different versions of events, he’s mortified at the consequences of having to tell a binding truth that leaves him no space for obfuscation or creative doubling-back.
This is why he refused to release his income tax returns (after having promised to do so!). Releasing them would pin him down to a single, definable group of facts. Trump thrives in environments of the moment where he can pitch whatever version of reality that best suits his needs and temperament.
Trump reportedly thinks he can demonstrate his innocence if allowed to sit and jaw with Mueller, but I doubt it. What he likes to do is set down tangled, conflicting versions of the same story that confuse his critics (and investigators) and consume their hours as they attempt to unknot the conflicts. A classic example of this version-shifting followed the New York Times report on the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians peddling Hillary Clinton campaign-dirt to Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. It took Trump two full years, and multiple revised takes, to go from his original explanation that the meeting was about Russian adoptions to an unambiguous admission that the meeting was about dispensing Clinton dirt. Trump’s unique relationship with the truth makes a mockery of the idea that a prosecutor would have to construct a perjury trap for him. For decades now, Trump has behaved so recklessly you could say his main hobby is fashioning bespoke snares that fit his neck perfectly.
The truth sets the average man free. For Trump, the lie is the great liberator. Going into an interview with Mueller, Trump would know that his interlocutor has as good handle on the facts behind the Russia investigation as he does and that all of his usual escape routes would be blocked. Even worse for Trump, Mueller is likely to know the background facts and chronologies even better than the president. Those who’ve ever told a lie (can I get a show of hands?) know that working under such conditions can be daunting.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
If he lies it's perjury, if he tells the truth it's an admission of guilt.
