"Truth Isn't Truth:" Updates On The Mueller Probe

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Published August 20, 2018 at 10:06 AM EDT

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and current lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media at the White House May 30, in Washington, DC.

We got several updates on the Mueller probe this weekend. And the president’s lawyer responded on NBC’s “Meet The Press” this Sunday.

As moderator Chuck Todd and Giuliani went back and forth about whether the president should sit down with Muller’s team to bring the investigation to a close, regarding the president’s testimony, Giuliani suggested that “truth isn’t truth.”

See the full transcript of the conversation here.

We’ve lived in the age of the ‘alternative fact’ since 2017, when senior advisor Kellyanne Conway defended Press Secretary Sean Spicer after he lied about the size of the president’s inauguration crowd.

But do Giuliani’s comments represent a new level of obfuscation? What are the implications of Giuliani’s efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the Mueller probe?

This conversation between Giuliani and Todd was directed by news that broke on Saturday night. The New York Times reported a scoop that White House counsel Don McGahn is cooperating with the investigation.

From the article:

In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president’s fury toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president’s most intimate moments with his lawyer.

Among them were Mr. Trump’s comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and Mr. Trump’s obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it. Mr. McGahn was also centrally involved in Mr. Trump’s attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which investigators might not have discovered without him.

For a lawyer to share so much with investigators scrutinizing his client is unusual. Lawyers are rarely so open with investigators, not only because they are advocating on behalf of their clients but also because their conversations with clients are potentially shielded by attorney-client privilege, and in the case of presidents, executive privilege.

We’ll update you on all the latest developments.

Produced by Bianca Martin. Text by Gabrielle Healy.

GUESTS

Shane Harris, Intelligence and national security reporter, The Washington Post; Future of War fellow, New America; author, “At War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex” and “The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State”‘; @shaneharris

Robert Bauer, Professor, New York University School of Law; former White House Counsel to President Obama

For more, visit https://the1a.org.