Bill Clinton's counsel Lanny Davis says Trump "cannot say no" to Mueller interview
Former President Clinton's counsel Lanny Davis said President Trump "cannot say no" if special counsel Robert Mueller asks to interview him. Davis, whose book "The Unmaking of the President 2016: How FBI Director James Comey Cost Hillary Clinton the Presidency" was released Tuesday, joined CBSN's "Red & Blue" Wednesday to talk about the special counsel investigation.
"God knows, we wanted President Clinton to say no to appearing on national television with a videotape before a grand jury," Davis told CBSN's DeMarco Morgan. "I suffered watching him sitting on a television set for an entire day, but he could not say no. Why? Because he's president. But on the other hand, Donald Trump forgets the presidency is beyond Donald Trump."
Davis said he thinks Mr. Trump could try to say no to speaking to Mueller, but then Mueller has the "subpoena power to drag him in front of a grand jury." Davis predicted if Mr. Trump says no, he will either be impeached or he will be pushed out of office because he's committing a political offense he can never recover from."
Mr. Trump recently told reporters he is "looking forward" to speaking to Mueller, but CBS News' Major Garrett reported earlier this week that any such interview is still under discussion. Mr. Trump's legal team has specific discussions with Mueller's team about the legal standard for interviewing the president.
Mr. Trump's attorney Ty Cobb told CBS News in January that a Mueller interview could be a "perjury trap," or when the story of the person testifying does not match the evidence.
Davis, who defended Mr. Clinton against special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, said Mr. Trump is "going to have a problem in [a] perjury case, false statement case, doesn't matter whether he's under oath or not, if he makes one false statement, that's a felony."
In his book, Davis, who is also a confidante of Hillary Clinton, blamed a number of factors of Clinton's loss in 2016, including Comey's announcement on Oct. 28 that he was re-opening the investigation into her emails.
"Let's look at the world, pre-Comey, right before he sent the letter, at 1 p.m. on Oct. 28," Davis said on "Red & Blue.
"Let's look at what is the situation in the morning and let's look at what happened in the next 10 days after the letter. And that's my statistical proof."
Davis said he believes Comey should have been fired by former President Obama or the Justice Department for his handling of the email investigation.
"I have mixed feelings about agreeing with President Trump on anything, but we agree on one thing but for different reasons: James Comey deserved to be fired, but not by President Trump," Davis said.
Davis also addressed the recent controversy about Burns Strider, Hillary Clinton's faith adviser in 2008, who has been accused of sexual harassment during the campaign. According to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton shielded Strider rather than fire him when he was accused of harassment in 2008. In a later position, Strider was accused of harassing a young aide and was later terminated.
Since the Times report, Hillary Clinton has said she would not make the same decision again.
On "Red & Blue," Davis said "I think everybody who looks back in time on this issue regrets – all of us, males and females – regrets that we didn't see it clearly enough … I happen to know the individual. He was – and is – a friend. I do not apologize in any way for what happened to him. What he did was wrong and he has suffered for it."