Lawyers representing Donald Trump’s current and former aides are giving their clients one simple piece of advice: Don’t lie to protect the president.
As special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators prepare to question high-ranking aides — including Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer — in the coming weeks, Trump’s long history of demanding his employees’ complete loyalty is being put to the test.
But Trump stalwarts know the president is closely following the media coverage of the Russia case — and the last thing they want is to be deemed a turncoat whose answers end up becoming further fuel for investigators.
Several of the lawyers representing current and former aides told POLITICO they’re actively warning their clients that any bonds connecting them to Trump won’t protect them from criminal charges if federal prosecutors can nail them for perjury, making false statements or obstruction of justice.
“What I always tell clients is you can’t protect anybody. You can only hurt yourself,” said a lawyer representing a client involved in the Russia probe. The attorney added that any overt attempts to protect Trump will raise wider suspicions of a cover-up, making matters “worse for everybody.”
At this point, considering the loyalty that Trump demands of his people, I would be willing to bet that somebody is going to get charged with perjury. I think is kind of baked in to the process at this point.
They will either do it out of some sense of gratitude or loyalty, or because they actually believe that Trump will ultimately protect them.
I would suggest that neither Sean Spicer of Reince Priebus are among those in danger of facing jail time however, as I see both of them as having been around politics too long, and having been too mistreated by Trump, to sacrifice their freedom to protect him from what they likely see as his unavoidable fate.
The thing about this Mueller investigation in particular is that he is going to gather a ton of folks who have knowledge of certain events, and if a Trump loyalist's story does not match that of everybody else they are truly FUBAR'd.
I am not certain that a person like Hope Hicks completely appreciates the gravity of their situation however.
She would be my first choice as one who would go down with the ship.
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