In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Rudy Giuliani—the one person who works for Donald Trump who can keep up with him when it comes to delivering statements that are equal parts hubris and duplicity—said that Trump no longer needed to talk to Robert Mueller. Because Trump’s tweets have been “very helpful” and “he’s laid out his defense very clearly,” But, not only are a series of tweets in no way equivalent to testimony before a special counsel, since Trump’s tweets have covered everything from facelifts to a “space force,” it’s far from clear just what Giuliani was suggesting.
Even when it comes to the relationship with the Russia investigation, Trump’s statements have covered a broad range of themes, from insisting that he was cooperating on a “historic” level, to stating that he was “eager” to testify, to obsessing over the bedroom behavior of FBI agents. As with every other statement by Trump, what’s “very clear” is that his position has shifted, then shifted, then shifted again.
But in a series of tweets that followed Giuliani’s statements, Trump did seem to make clear his defense: He hates Robert Mueller. Hates him, precious.
Trump’s Sunday tweets included the lies that have become a standard part of his attacks on the special counsel investigation: That Mueller appoints only Democrats—which isn’t true. That Clinton’s campaign colluded with Russia—which isn’t true. That James Comey is a close friend of Mueller—which isn’t true. And that the investigation was triggered by the dossier from Christopher Steele—which isn’t true.
But the central theme to Trump’s posts struck a new chord by claiming that he and Mueller had personal “conflicts of interest,” including a “very nasty and contentious business relationship.” Trump also focused on the idea that he turned Mueller down for the position of FBI director “one day before” he was appointed as special counsel.
It’s true that Mueller did interview with Trump on May 16, 2017, the day before Deputy Attorney General asked him to serve as special counsel. But Trump did not even interview current FBI director Christopher Wray until two weeks after that date. And it’s not as if Mueller campaigned to resume the FBI job he’d already held under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Just one month before his interview with Trump, Mueller has been appointed as “Special Master” in the wide-ranging, big-dollar settlement proceedings over failing airbags. He was in a challenging job with a potentially enormous pay day. He wasn’t looking to go backward in his career. Mueller came to see Trump at Trump’s request, not the other way around.
So in claiming that he turned Mueller down, Trump is claiming that Mueller asked for the job. And that Trump not only told Mueller he wasn’t being hired, he told him on the spot. Fortunately, there is someone who should know whether those statements are true — his name is Robert Mueller.
In January, the New York Times ran a story saying that Trump had tried to fire Mueller in June of 2017, just a few weeks after the investigation began. But he backed away when multiple members of his staff threatened to resign if he carried through on the action.
That article shows that Trump has been polishing what he delivered in Sunday’s tweets for more than a year, suggesting this has been his go-to excuse for getting rid of Robert Mueller from day one.
The president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.
But again, for that action to make any sense as a claim that Mueller bore some grudge against Trump, it would have required that 1) Mueller wanted the job and 2) Trump turned him down right away. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that either of these is true.
What is true is that Trump brought Mueller in to talk to him about returning to the FBI, but the very next day Mueller instead took a post as the special counsel in charge of the investigation. Which makes it seem very much as if Robert Mueller turned Trump down, possibly because he already knew what Rosenstein was going to ask of him.
But that same times article had a clue about something else Trump might be talking about when he claims that he and Mueller have a “contentious business relationship.”
[Trump] claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership.
It’s the kind of petty, pointless disagreement that would definitely drive Trump’s actions a decade later, but for anyone else … well. No.
Trump’s initial experience in attempting to fire Mueller apparently left him rattled enough that it was almost a year before he mentioned the special counsel by name. But since then Trump has fired off a steady stream of attacks, returning over two dozen times to his false claims of “all angry Democrats” and talk of Mueller’s “conflicts.”
Trump’s series of Sunday Mueller-related tweets don’t provide a defense in a legal sense, but they do provide plenty of insight into Trump: He’s petty and vindictive, and he can’t conceive that everyone else isn’t equally driven out of such cramped motivations. That’s “definitely clear.”
What’s less clear is whether Trump will simply repeat these lies until Mueller provides a report on his findings, or attempt to do now what he backed away from a year ago. After all, one thing that hasn’t changed in the last year: Republicans have passed no bill to protect the investigation.