Ken Starr: Mueller May Indict Trump After His Presidency (HBO)

Special Counsel Bob Mueller has two pathways to proceed against President Trump if he uncovers serious wrongdoing by the President, former independent counsel Ken Starr told VICE News.

Mueller can either refer his findings to Congress for impeachment — as Starr did with former President Bill Clinton in 1998. Or Mueller can wait for Trump’s presidency to end, and indict Trump afterwards, Starr said.

Starr said he believes that the law does permit a sitting president to face a criminal indictment. But longstanding DOJ policy against charging a sitting president will keep Mueller from charging Trump while in office, Starr predicted — no matter what the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s links to Russia finds.

Unlike many observers, Starr himself has real-world experience in making such decisions. In 1998, he sent an explosive report to Congress, dubbed the Starr Report, that laid out 11 “grounds” for impeaching Clinton, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering and abuse of power.

Trump Lawyers Have Submitted Written Answers to Special Counsel’s Questions

“I write the answers. My lawyers don’t write answers,” Trump told reporters last week. “I was asked a series of questions. I answered them very easily.”

The questions reportedly dealt in part with how much the president knew about his advisers’ contacts with Russians.

“I’m sure they’re tricked up,” Trump said Friday about Mueller’s questions. “Because, you know, they like to catch people. So you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions.”

“It has been our position from the outset that much of what has been asked raised serious constitutional issues and was beyond the scope of a legitimate inquiry. This remains our position today. The President has nonetheless provided unprecedented cooperation. The Special Counsel has been provided with more than 30 witnesses, 1.4 million pages of material, and now the President’s written responses to questions. It is time to bring this inquiry to a conclusion,” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, said in a statement.