With legal experts already warning that a tweet from President Donald Trump earlier in the day calling on Attorney Jeff Sessions to end the Mueller probe "right now" could constitute a direct and very public act of obstruction of justice, the president's personal legal team jumped into action in what appeared like an effort to save their client's ass.
According to the Washington Post, who received comment from both Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, the pair of Trump's personal attorneys were quickly trying to put out the fire by saying that what Trump said was not an "explicit command" or an official presidential order.
"He carefully used the word, 'should,'" Giuliani told the Post. And Sekulow reportedly added: "The president has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this."
Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow be like cleanup on aisle 5 today over Trumps demands Sessions shut down Mueller probe pic.twitter.com/DUpgQormUA
— Koko (@Kokomothegreat) August 1, 2018
The president's team also issued a statement to ABC News. "We have been saying for months that it is time to bring this inquiry to an end," Giuliani declared. "The President has expressed the same opinion."
"The President was expressing his opinion on his favored medium for asserting his First Amendment right of free speech," Giuliani added. "He said 'should' not 'must' and no Presidential order was issued or will be."
Giuliani also spoke with Fox News' Howard Kurt:
Giuliani also tells me that Trump "didn't say anything I haven't said" on television, "the investigation should be concluded"
— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) August 1, 2018
Turns out, however, that Giuliani is neither the President of the United States nor are any members of his historic presidential campaign (remember that?) currently under indictment due to the investigative reach of the Special Counsel's office.
The bigger question, however, is whether or not his legal team's rapid-response media performance is enough to put the possible obstruction of justice offense by the president back in the bottle.
In a Twitter thread explaining the gravity of Trump's demand, Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), indicated that might not be so easily done.
2/4 The President trying to undercut and shut down an investigation into himself and those around him goes against core democratic values. It also could be part of a pattern of obstructive conduct and help establish the corrupt intent needed to prove obstruction of justice.
— Noah Bookbinder (@NoahBookbinder) August 1, 2018
4/4 Finally it is completely inappropriate for the President to comment in explosive terms on the Manafort case federal prosecutors currently have in trial and potentially try to sway jurors. Other than that, great tweets this morning!
— Noah Bookbinder (@NoahBookbinder) August 1, 2018
