Oh please, please come in for an interview and leave your lawyers outside the room. Not a puppet, not a target.
Prosecutors view someone as a subject when that person has engaged in conduct that is under investigation but there is not sufficient evidence to bring charges.
The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
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The president has privately expressed relief at the description of his legal status, which has increased his determination to agree to a special counsel interview, the people said.
He has repeatedly told allies that he is not a target of the probe and believes an interview will help him put the matter behind him, friends said.
However, legal experts said Mueller’s description of Trump as a subject of a grand jury probe does not mean he is in the clear.
Under Justice Department guidelines, a subject of an investigation is a person whose conduct falls within the scope of a grand jury’s investigation. A target is a person for which there is substantial evidence linking him or her to a crime.
A subject could become a target with his or her own testimony, legal experts warn.
“I think he would do much better than people think,” Solomon Wisenberg, (a former deputy independent counsel in the probe of President Bill Clinton) said.
“But there are plenty of instances where a guy walks into a grand jury a subject. He gets out and is told: ‘Guess what, you’re a target now.’”