Now that we know Special Counsel Robert Mueller approached Team Trump last month about interviewing the pr*sident, one thing has become glaringly clear: Trump still has no one with the high-profile legal chops to guide him through that briar patch of thorny questioning. Bloomberg writes:
The abrupt departure of Trump’s lead attorney John Dowd has left Jay Sekulow -- a lawyer specializing in First Amendment and religious freedom cases -- in charge of legal strategy and negotiations with Mueller over a possible interview of the president. Sekulow’s constitutional law background could help him wage a fight to block questioning by Mueller or limit its scope, but he has no experience guiding a client through a complex criminal investigation. [...]
Sekulow is up against Mueller’s team of 17 veteran prosecutors who collectively have decades of experience handling complex criminal cases, including putting away mobster kingpins.
“It’s a very dangerous situation for the president not to have top-flight white-collar representation,” said Randall Eliason, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who teaches white-collar criminal law at George Washington University Law School in Washington. “It’s a specialty. You wouldn’t go to your throat doctor for brain surgery.”
Except that Trump might. He is reportedly still keen on sitting for Mueller, especially since he has learned that he's not the "target" of the investigation yet (as if being a "subject" of a criminal probe is a position to leverage.)
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.
In fact, Trump's determination to do the interview appears to have been part of the reason his lead attorney—who actually had criminal experience—resigned.
Dowd told the president the case against him was weak, but warned Trump he could create criminal jeopardy for himself if he agreed to an interview and misspoke under oath, the friend said. Dowd repeatedly pointed to the Trump campaign advisers who have pleaded guilty to making false statements in the Mueller probe — including Flynn, adviser George Papadopoulos and former campaign official Rick Gates.
Yeah, Dowd thought the case was so weak that he dangled the prospect of a preemptive pardon in front of the lawyers of both Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. Anyway, forget about all that—Trump no longer has to worry about that pesky advice, he's got Sekulow.
Until his addition to Trump’s legal team, Sekulow, 61, was best known as an evangelist for pro-Israeli, freedom of speech, and religious causes. [...]
Sekulow said last week that he was elevating one of the attorneys who has been helping on the case for months, Andrew Ekonomou, to a more prominent role with Dowd’s departure. Ekonomou is a former federal prosecutor and acting U.S. attorney from Atlanta who’s well-versed in criminal cases but has no experience with a major Washington investigation.
May the best team win!